FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Mr. Henry Fredricks had sold his bull to Messrs. Cole Bros., of Jam- 

 beroo. Before Cole Bros, bought '" Major" he had been leased to Mr. 

 Jas. Spinks. This Major strain was quickly snapped up by all those 

 breeders who had burnt a hole in their pockets over the purchase of 

 the beef bulls a few years previous. As everyone was anxious to get 

 hold of a Major bull, it is just possible that many bulls which were 

 sold by auction and otherwise disposed of were but distant relations 

 of that much-boomed animal during the seventies and eighties. 



In 1872 Mr. Evan R. Evans, of Penrose, Dapto, was smitten with a 

 desire for new blood. He made several purchases. Among his selec- 

 tions was a roan bull bred by Mr. E. K. Cox, of Fernhill, Mulgoa ; 

 a roan bull and a red bull from the Australian Agricultural Company 

 of Gloucester. All these bulls were used in Mr. Evans' herd during 

 the late sixties and the early seventies. 



In the late seventies and the early eighties many of the dairymen 

 of the colony went in -for Ayrshire bulls, many of their selections 

 coming from New Zealand and Victoria. A Mr. Pemell, a Sydney 

 millowner, made several importations ; and Dr. Lambert, of Berrima. 

 Mr. H. C. Antill, Picton, and the Bodalla Estate also imported direct 

 from Ayrshire (Scotland). 



But probably the most notable bull of the Ayrshire breed that came 

 to the coastal districts in those days was purchased in Victoria by 

 Mr. John Lindsay, of Dapto, in Victoria, in 1878, who sold him by auc- 

 tion in Kiama in 1883 to Mr. John Grey, of Berry. This animal was 

 named " Earl Beaconsfield," and when crossed with Illawarra cattle 

 the progeny was unsurpassed as dairy cattle. The Beaconsfields, as 

 they were called, were to be found competing in every show ring with 

 a fair amount of success among the Ayrshire classes. 



We have numerous illustrations of cows in this book full of the 

 Earl Beaconsfield blood ; among the number is Mr. George Tate's 

 celebrated dairy cow " Lucky," on page 149. 



