40 



TJie Count7'y Gcntlevimis Llagazine 



and Mr James Reed, of Laxfield, tells me 

 that fifty years ago he remembered Mr Julian 

 — who was a Catlin in his day — shewing for 

 horses at the same place in that day's fashion- 

 able but unsightly style, being long-tailed. 

 Thanks to some Woodbridge people, who 

 have the place and the will, we look again 

 like having a show established. 



POINTS IN BREEDING AND REARING. 



The obesity of the horse is often objected 

 to, the objectors stating as their ground for 

 it, that it damages their procreative powers. 

 There is a vast deal depending on a horse- 

 dealer's judgment and experience. It is the 

 overloading a colt with fat which does the 

 mischief, for just as the overtaxed two-year-olds 

 on the turf fly in their legs, and beget an im. 

 paired stock when used in the stud, so over- 

 done colts from early service go at the hocks, 

 and frequently reproduce in their stock the 

 bad effects,; but two-year-olds being less used 

 of late, hocks certainly look cleaner. Two 

 and three-year-olds are nothing like so sure 

 as older horses for service. The month of 

 May has always been spoken of by old heads 

 as the season for the mare going on kindly. 

 The change then to green food may be an 

 assistance, but more regulated atmosphere 

 does very much too. At the time of cover- 

 ing, and a few days after, it is well not to 



have the mare over-heated. When a mare is 

 discovered slipping her foal, where the other 

 in-foal mares are, have her off at once to the 

 sick house — sympathy in ewes is bad enough 

 that way, in mares it is worse. The farmer 

 of good working soil has an advantage over 

 the heavy land farmer in breeding, for often 

 it is that on the latter we are kept days, and 

 sometimes weeks, off the land by the wet. 

 Then, when the mare next goes to the 

 plough — she may have been kept at light 

 work — the heavy work so tells upon her that 

 a loss of the embryo takes place. The com- 

 mon practice of putting t vvo-year-olds to work 

 tends to dwarf and pull out of shape many a 

 once promising colt. From these causes it 

 is, we find, that a large majority of the ex- 

 hibitors in the agricultural horse classes at 

 our shows are light-land men. That which 

 helps to forward colts nicely is to give the 

 foal, when quite young, a bait or two daily of 

 crushed oats and bran — away from the mare; 

 that, as the young one ages, the mare may 

 be worked more frequently. This plan is so 

 helpful at weaning time, as hardly any loss of 

 milk fat takes place. A penny packet of 

 condiment given daily through the first winter 

 sends the colt on well. My difficulty was in 

 taking the condiment off without loss of con- 

 dition. I manage that by giving a few split 

 peas at the time of turning out to grass. 



THE BEST MANURES FOR POTATOES. 



By Mr YoOL, Coulard Bank.' 



I SHALL not attempt to answer definitely 

 the question as to the most suitable 

 manure for the successful cultivation of the 

 potato in the county, but will lay before you 

 the results of some experiments carried out 

 by me last season, which I consider to be 

 amongst the most successful I have ever 

 carried out, and which shew fewer anomalies 

 than most agricultural experiments. The 



Read before the Morayshire Farmers' Club. 



experiments were instituted in the first 

 place for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the necessity, or otherwise, of applying 

 potash salts to the potato crop ; but 

 when arranging them for this purpose, I re- 

 solved to carry them somewhat further, with 

 the view of determining the action of am- 

 monia and superjDhosphate of lime alone, and 

 in mixture, as well as in farm-yard dung, 

 upon the crop. The soil on which the ex- 

 periments were carried out consists of a good 



