264: QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL gouRNAL. [1 Aprit, 1898. 
sheep, and pigs unequalled in any other country throughout the world, and 
yet we see on our pastures, and in our fairs and markets, a large percentage 
of all kinds of stock of a very inferior class—a class little, if any, better than 
the semi-wild Western Rangers landed in Birkenhead and Deptford. 
Is this inferiority of our cattle solely due to carelessness of our ordinary 
farmers, or can we look for some other cause for what is without doubt an 
enormous national loss? We believe we can. The majority of our cattle are 
bred by occupiers of small holdings, and it is only in certain districts of the 
country, let the cause be what it may, where the food, the shelter, or the 
attention is such as to suit the proper development of the stock produced by 
well-bred specimens of our established breeds of cattle. No doubt it may be 
said this difficulty may be easily met by improving the farming, the buildings, 
the shelter, and the education of the people, so as to ensure careful attention 
to the proper and profitable management of stock. While this is true, it must 
be confessed that, if the improved quality of our live stock has to depend upon 
such radical changes, we must for many years to come see the average qualit 
of our ‘cattle population” much below the wished-for standard. ty 
If, therefore, knowing that cattle (let them be of whatever or whichever 
of our present day improved breeds we may care to name) must be called upon 
to live and reproduce their kind under circumstances unsuited for their proper 
development, it is a mistake to despair of being able to attempt to meet the 
difficulty. We possess the necessary elements, and there can be no reason 
why we should not produce new breeds of cattle, more suited for the rough 
and ready life they unfortunately have to lead, than those of the present day 
improved breeds. To many this may seem a startling proposition, as any 
advice advocating an attempt to improve cattle by using what they would term 
cross-bred bulls, would be looked upon as a heresy. When, however, we 
consider that the foundations of all our improved breeds were laid by cross- 
breeding, to be followed by selection, we affirm that what has been done can 
be done again. 4 : 
We are to-day in a different and better position than were the breeders of 
the last century. Stock can be transported from one district or country to 
another, while mary other facilities are within our reach altogether unknown 
to our forefathers. | 
It is now necessary for the furtherance of the object in view to see if, 
amongst our present day breeds, we do possess the elements for the production, 
within a limited time, of a class of cattle better suited to meet the requirements 
of our ordinary farmers, the class as we have seen in whose hands the larger 
number of our cattle are bred. 
It is no longer necessary, nor in many cases even profitable, to breed, rear, 
and feed large-sized cattle. The beef consumers do not now purchase large 
joints; they want small joints, with a greater proportion of flesh. This being 
so, it is towards the smaller breeds of cattle that we must turn our attention 
if we aim at producing marketable high-priced beef. So far from this being 
in any way a stumbling-block in the way of profit to the small holdings cattle- 
breeders, it must be all in their favour. If they cannot realise so much 
individually for their cattle, they can, on their acreage, grow and maintain a 
larger number than if they possessed animals of larger size. Not the least of 
the many advantages of small cattle is the fact that many retentive soils, 
badly drained soils, or soils having a thin covering of herbage, suffer less from 
their tread than if stocked with animals of a heavy breed. This alone is all 
the more important in districts where the cattle graze out the greater portion 
of the year. 
As has been indicated, the intention of this paper is to advocate the pro- 
duction of new breeds suited to the life and circumstances they individually | 
have to face, and in the mixing of the blood of the larger with that of the less 
improved smaller breeds, to attempt: to evolve types likely to exist and thrive 
on a less liberal fare and less expensive management than what must be 
accorded to our present day improyed breeds of stock. : 
