FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



breeder says : " I bred this or that cow or bull on certain lines." 

 his neighbours, who have been probably less successful will say : 

 "Show animals were not bred on the lines laid do\vn for our guid- 

 ance by Mr. So and So." Hence this age cf doubt and sceptic- 

 ism in matters appertaining to reliable records of cattle breeding. 

 Cattle breeders who have endeavoured ior a number of years to 

 perfect a system by which they could breed show animals, and 

 heavy producers combined, have invariably become disgusted with 

 their system in the end. They have, unfortunately, passed one 

 by one out of the arenas of our showgrounds without giving us any 

 information regarding the weakness and defects of their system o; 

 breeding. We do not expect men who have kept to the front lor 

 a few years by a system oi dealing and bogus pedigreeing, in and 

 with stock trying to hide their tricks of the trade! But why 

 should cattle breeders deceive themselves by fancying that they 

 know that of which they are really ignorant ? The science of 

 breeding dairy cattle in common with all science requires much 

 comparison; and there can be no comparison where selfishness is 

 as prevalent as it is among many of our stock breeders. If it be, 

 however, that there is also always a fund of good sense which can- 

 not be destroyed, there is much hope for the future of our 

 dairymen. When, therefore, certain individuals of lofty imagina- 

 tions concerning their superior knowledge of stock breed- 

 ing attempt to involve their neighbours in their error, the multi- 

 tude invariably answers with a smile of derision, or if it allows 

 itseli f to be seduced for a moment, it soon returns to its senses, 

 and repels with indignation the notions, and conceits, of the am- 

 bitious ones. Passionate declamation against vulgar parade of 

 knowledge, is, as a rule, the most effective weapon; but it is only 

 those intimately acquainted with human nature who are capable of 

 dealing with bodies of men who exhibit docility in following, and 

 a willingness to believe all that is said without examination. 



I consider it better to accept the breeder's theory in preference 

 to the theorist who merely gains his knowledge by looking over 

 the fence. The latter's opinions, on being analysed, are found to 

 signify nothing more than the instability of things human; an in- 

 stability the knowledge of which does not, as a rule, enable them 

 to breed good animals for their own use. The above remark s 

 apply generally to certain expressions which are heard just previous 

 to. and after, any local or metropolitan show. A writer in an 

 Australian journal, who had recently (1909) visited, the Kiama 

 show, stated: "The cows in milk form a class which would rouse 

 fond longing in the mind of any man who makes dairying his busi- 

 ness. Here roan predominated, and the animals were nearly all 

 big, deep bodied milkers, with tremendous vessels, and large, well- 

 placed teats. Every cow would be considered a stud animal 

 by its district, albeit there was probably not one absolutely pure 

 bred in the yard." These remarks are very nice in their way. 

 and. to a certain extent true. But all heavy producing cows do 

 not breed the best calves. It requires a lot of sound judgment, 

 based on experience to decide that question, which as is well un- 

 derstood by a few farmers in every dairying centre oif the State 

 But where the writer of the paragraph just quoted gets into deep 

 water is in questioning the purity of blood in those cows, bred, 

 as they were, for dairying purposes solely! For example: Sup- 

 pose a horse-breeder had in his possession a thoroughbred mare 

 of strong, robust proportions, and in due time he stinted her to a 

 pure bred Arabian horse. What would the progeny of that mating 

 be termed? Pure, or not pure bred? This question is all the 

 more puzzling when we reflect that it was from the Spanish and 

 Arabian IUM-M-- that our thoroughbred Kiipl'sh horse was evolved. 



230. 



