FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



horned bull, Shakespeare. He obtained one of the Westmoreland 

 longhorned bulls and mated him with his own luiignorned cow, 

 Old Comely, the result was Comely heifer No. i, and Comely heifer 

 No. 2. Then he bred by the same bull and cow a bull called Two- 

 penny. Twopenny was then mated with his dam, Old Comely 

 once, and Twopenny and Caniey heifer No. 2 twice, the grandsire 

 and the dam of Shakespeare being both by him out of Comely 

 heifer No. 2, and his daughter from his own dam being the dam of 

 Shakespeare's sire; so that the breeding in-and-in was remarkably 

 close. 



It is beyond dispute that these cattle were the best dairy cattle 

 ever seen in Australia. When mated with the Shorthorns we get 

 the Strawberry longhorned Durhams that laid the foundation of the 

 celebrated Booth strain 01 Shorthorns. These strawberry long- 

 horns, which Bakeweii perfected, could be seen all over Australia 

 at one time; but their great tendency to throw back or "cry back" 

 to their ancestors, those animals with gallons of milk in their udders 

 did not suit the beef-breeders, and as their colours were condemned 

 by the showmen the breed was soon neglected and forgotten, so 

 far as the station men of Australia were concerned, since the later 

 sixties. Those men who were instrumental in perfecting the Eng- 

 lish racehorse were thoroughly acquainted with the nature, habits, 

 and characteristics of the Byerly-Turk, the Darley- Arabian, the 

 Godolphin-Arabian, and the Persian Gulf Barbs. They were alsa 

 acquainted with the fact that there may have been some difference 

 in the blood of the Byerly-Turk from that of the Darley-Arabian. 

 Be tliat as it may, they understood the distinction that existed be- 

 tween those strains and the Persian Gulf Barbs; and between the latter 

 anci the bpanish horse. Bakeweii knew the difference between the 

 Westmoreland Longhorned bull and his own breed of Longhorns 

 before he mated that bull with his own cow Old Comely. Bakeweii 

 also knew the history of the Longhcrrns, as well as their nature and 

 characteristics. How different it is when we turn to our own times 

 and read the articles or listen to the speeches of the men who have 

 been trying to perfect an almost extinct race of either// horses or 

 cattle. "Not understood" may be aptly applied to-day to either 

 the Arabian horse or the Longhorned breed of cattle. Yet, no 

 animals we are acquainted with, with the exception of the Ayr- 

 shire breed of cattle, have proved to be so successful in blending 

 with other breeds of their kind. The Arab horse will blend with 

 any other breed of horse on earth; so would the Longhorned cattle 

 blend well with any other breed of cattle. Both could point to 

 antiquity for their origin, so to speak. There was something in- 

 herent in the Arabian horse, and the Longhorn, and Ayrshire cattle 

 that cannot be easily described; yet, no one who has once studied 

 their true characteristics has failed to observe it. Cheap grass- 

 lands, wide tracts of unfenced country, careless breeding, have com- 

 bined to destroy the several breeds of high-class dairy cattle that 

 at one time existed in New South Wales. Whilst people adhered to 

 the "Id system that prevailed in the twenties and thirties in the 

 counties of Cumberland, Camdcn, and Argylc, that of keeping 

 the stud animals in secure paddocks near the homestead, the 1 

 ing and quality could be relied on. But, in after years, when ctittlc 

 became cheap, the majority of the breeder- neglected their herds 

 and allowed all the breeds to mix together and run wild over the 

 countfy. 



If we take the early forties, we will find that Messrs. Went worth 

 and John Terry- 1 lughes had very hrire herds of what we will term 

 "Macarthur's" Longhorns; their brands were D\V and UHl. Then 

 \\ i- have the "l.omax's" Shorthorns and Lilicolns; his brand was 



212. 



