The
van must be carefully selected. Tt is a difficult matter to remove a
herd of cattle to another run, so that the station fixed on should have
every requisite to ensure permanency, or much loss may ensue should
necessity arise for removal. Substantial stock-yards would become
useless, and fresh ones would have to be constructed. Besides which,
there is great risk in removing cattle to a new run, from their
propensity to return to the old one, which they will do, even for
hundreds of miles. As they are not housed at night, except at first,
there is no check on this, and the attachment which they manifest to
their former home is always a difficulty in forming a new station. It
will not do to increase the difficulty by a second removal.
The
first step is to burn the run; however luxuriant may be the grass, they
will not in general eat it; but when burnt, they thrive well on that
which afterwards springs up. The conflagrations thus caused are
sometimes very extensive. Before the cattle are brought, on the run,
the stock-yard must be erected, as at first it will be necessary to
confine them every night to prevent their escape. The building of huts,
and the laying out of gardens and paddocks, must be the same as in
forming a sheep station. The requisite necessaries are also similar ;
but all matters of this kind are best learned from experience in the
colony.
The
chief care requisite, at first, is to render your herd as tame as
possible, by constantly milking them, even if the milk is thrown away.
The formation of a dairy is not, in outlying districts, considered
remunerative, except as reducing the cattle to better order, and this
is a great point gained, as being the most efficient method of taming
the herd, from [their being frequently yarded. Cattle in Australia are
subject to few diseases, the principal one being the black leg, which
is easily cured.
Horses
are another source of profit, and are in universal use. Every one can
keep his horse, and every one rides. There is also now a considerable
demand in India for Australian horses, which are preferred for cavalry
purposes, some of these having
