acquainted with the local difficulty of raising grain for
the annual supply of those necessarily victualled from the
public stores. In times of plenty settlers grumbled if the
government declined to buy a superabundance of grain.
When there were losses by reason of drought, or of flood,
forestallers ground down the settlers, and the existence of
a reserve of government grain was of incalculable value.
When the flood of 1806 occurred, the stores of 1805
(35,510 bushels of wheat, and 96,080 of maize) averted
famine, and even after the drain upon the resources of the
government in 1806 there were nearly 5000 bushels of
wheat, and more than the same number of maize in stock.
In modern times, when high prices are given for well- bred stock, it is interesting to look back upon the casual and heterogeneous importations in the infancy of the colony. Cattle were taken originally by Phillip from the Cape of Good Hope. What was called the "small Buffalo breed" was afterwards imported from Calcutta at various times. A Spanish ship left an Andalusian cow in 1794. An English bull and cow, neither of which had horns, were sent in 1796 from St. Helena, and "much improved the herds in the colony." When Mr. Blaxland arrived in 1806 he was astonished at the excellence of the progeny of the St. Helena bull. A disease broke out in time of drought in 1803. "A spongy substance"[1] appeared on the tongue which prevented the cattle from eating. On its removal disease in the foot followed, which extended to the sheep. A few animals died, but on the breaking up of the drought all disease disappeared
Clover and lucerne were cultivated, the latter "yielding at least four cuttings a-year," but few farmers used it because it was intolerant of being depastured upon. Governor Phillip carried horses from the Cape of Good Hope in the first fleet. Before 1806 Arab and Persian stallions were imported from the East Indies. In 1802
- ↑ The text is quoted from King The Sydney Gazette (27th Nov. 1803) recorded that the disease appeared among working cattle at Parramatta, and that it affected the creature first in the tongue and in the interstices of the hoof." Nearly three-quarters of a century elapsed before the "foot and mouth" disease became an object of terror to colonists apprehensive of its importation.
