Volume 67: Macarthur family papers relating to livestock, 1814-1884: No. 362

[Page 362]

Report - 9.

dition of most cattle-runs, and the consequent impossibility of keeping different herds separate, even where there was a desire to do so, has assisted in scattering and intermixing the stock;  and this process has been aggravated by the frequent droughts which have afflicted the Colony, and the scarcity and dearness of labour in the pastoral districts during the height of the gold mania.

Under such circumstances it is hardly to be expected that our cattle, as a whole, looking at them from a connoisseur's point of view, would display superior "quality".  They do not, and although they have been considerably improved during the last ten years, they are still comparatively short and rough in the "coat", hard in the touch, and large in the bone, while as to form they lack size, squareness, and fulness in the handling points.  The best of the general average of our cattle are compact, short-legged, and fleshy enough, but they are comparatively light at the flank, round in the hind-quarters, and turned more like the "black poley", or Devon, than the short-horn, from which their horn, colour, and general appearance, shows they ae principally descended.

Their meat is as a rule excellent when killed on, or at a short distance from, the station on which they are fed.  It is comparatively fine in the grain, well flavoured, and fairly marbled.  It is seldom however that the townspeople see it in prime condition, as the effect of the droving not only depreciates the flavour of the meat but wastes the carcase.  The average journey to market is about 250 miles, and the waste in ordinary seasons, and even with careful droving, is hardly less than 75 to 150 lbs., while in seasons of drought and flood, and with careless droving, the waste is greatly more.  Ordinarily well-bred bullocks, off a good and not over-stocked run, will leave it at from 3½ to 4 years old weighing from 750 to 850 lbs., and cows 150 lbs. less.

Upon the whole, though there is still considerable room for improvement in the generality of our herds, the average of the cattle are very far from inferior, and even those that are the least to be admired make passable beef, and turn out when fat a fair quantity of tallow.  The disposition to pay increased attention to the improvement of the breed is evident from the demand that now exists for pedigree cattle, and the high prices they bring.  None of the yearling short-horns, with any pretensions to purity of blood, fetch less than £100.  Blood is beginning to be appreciated at its true value, and correct views of the principles of breeding are rapidly gaining ground.  There is good reason therefore to expect a great and rapid improvement in the quality of our cattle.

Price and demand. - For the average of such cattle as those above described, the net return from the Melbourne and Sydney markets may be put all round (bullocks and cows) at an average of £5 per head.  For the last eighteen months or two years the demand for fat cattle has been good in both Colonies, and it is likely to improve, not only in consequence of the steady increase of population, but by reason of the large consumption by the different meat-preserving Companies now springing into existence.,  So far, however, as domestic consumption is concerned, it is to be noted that mutton is a cheaper meat than beef, and that the trade in it is handier and more profitable to the butcher.

Breeds and Breeders. - The principal, it may be said the only breeds in the Colony, are Short-horns and Hereford, with a single herd of Devons.

Short-horns. - This, as has been said, is the principal breed.  For the last thirty or forty years the greater proportion of im-