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8 PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



Horse-Bbeeding Trust. 



Mr GiLMOUR of Montrave submitted the report of the Royal Commission on 

 Horse Breeding, together with the prize list for the forthcoming show of thorough- 

 bred stallions, to be held at Nottingham in conjunction with the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, on Thursday and Friday, 9th and 10th February 1888. The last 

 day of enti-y is Saturday 21st January, jjost entries being received up to the 28th 

 on payment of double fees. The district classes for Scotland are as follows : — (1) 

 Aberdeenshire and district; (2) Perthshire, Fifeshire, and district; (3) Ayrshire, 

 Dumfriesshire, and district; (4) Roxburghshire, Berwickshire, and district. Each 

 district one stallion, at £200. ]Mr Gilmour said he was glad to say that up to the 

 present the apjilication for entry forms was very encouraging to the Commission, and 

 they liad great hopes that a very fine collection of thoroughbred stallions would be 

 brought forward at Nottingham. 



]\Ir ViLLiERS thought there would be a general feeling that the arrangements for 

 this year were the best that could be submitted as a tentative scheme, but he hoped 

 it would be open to considerable amendment in the future. In Scotland the atten- 

 tion of breeders had been given more to Clydesdale and agricultural horses, the light- 

 legged breed l)eing put aside as belonging more to the landlord than the tenant ; but 

 he thought the country was beginning to take more interest in half-bred horses than 

 they had hitherto done, and he hoped landlords would bring the scheme before their 

 tenantry. 



The Rev. .John Gillespie asked how one horse was to serve "Ayrshire, Dumfries- 

 shire, and district "? He thought the GJovernment grant should have been sufficiently 

 liberal to jjrovide an adequate number of horses to supjjly each district, or it should 

 have been dropped altogether. 



Professor W.\llace said a great mistake was committed in certain parts of the 

 country in travelling stallions over too wide an area, and he thought that should be 

 avoided. 



Mr Stirling said his understanding was that the mares, and not the stallions, 

 were to travel, and the reason the district was so large was that the Government 

 were not aware how far the scheme would be taken advantage of by the farmers. If 

 it were largely embraced, fresh arrangements would be made for another season. 



Mr Gilmour did not agree with Mr Giillespie that because they could not get all 

 they wanted they should not take what they could get. As to the locating of the 

 horses, it was altogether experimental, and was not intended to be a permanent 

 arrangement. 



The matter then dropped. 



On the motion of Mr Gilmour, a vote of thanks was given to the Chairman, and 

 the proceedings terminated. 



