232 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



own private use at these different clubs. A great many of these 

 hunters have been imported from Ireland. Mr. Mather, the late master 

 of the Radnor Hunt Club at Philadelphia, has all imported Irish hunters. 

 I believe he has in his private stables at present about twenty-five. 



Missouri the State to Breed Hunters. — Ireland has ceased to produce 

 the hunter of old, and they are looking to America to fill that place, 

 and Missouri is the State that should take the foremost rank, as they 

 have the best foundation to breed hunters, on the dam side, of any State 

 in the Union. 



I see in my sales, week after week, some beautifully shaped Mis- 

 souri bred mares that would make the very best dams to produce hunters 

 and cavalry horses, that it is possible to procure. 



The landlords in Ireland all owned large racing stables. A great 

 many of them raced in England and on the Continent, and a great many 

 raced in Ireland. When one of the thoroughbred stallions broke down 

 he was generally stood at a very small fee in some part of the estate, and, 

 in some cases, no fee at all, to be bred to the farmers' mares. The result 

 of this union was the Irish hunter and Irish cavalry horse, or officer's 

 charger, which the country for a great many years had been noted for. 

 Along came the land agitation and the landlords were either driven from 

 Ireland, or the land bill compelled them to reduce their rents, and in a 

 great many cases, also gave the tenant the right of purchasing. With 

 them went the thoroughbred sire. In his place the English government 

 has introduced the Coach horse and the Hackney, and the results are at 

 the present time that we are deprived of the good Irish hunters and cav- 

 alry horses that Ireland has been famous for producing. 



I would like to see the Missouri breeders breed thoroughbred stal- 

 lions to their farm mares, and produce what we are now greatly in need 

 of, and what we will need more and more every year in the future, viz. : 

 horses typical for military purposes, for the hunting field and for pleasure 

 riding. 



If you breed a standard-bred trotting horse to a common farm mare 

 you will hardly expect to get a two-minute trotter. If )'ou breed your 

 beautiful Missouri bred gaited saddle horse to a common farm marc, 

 you will hardly expect to get a Rex McDonald. In order to get a high- 

 class gaited saddle horse you have to cross your gaited saddle stallion to 

 your gaited saddle mare, and in order to get a two-minute trotter you 

 have to breed your trotting stallion to your standard bred mare, but in 

 order to get what we now need, breed your common farm mares to thor- 

 oughbred stallions, and you will get the quality in the offspring that your 

 farm mare cannot produce bred to any other sire. 



At the New York horse show they gave a prize of $500.00 for the 



