THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



307 



a vast quantity of nutritious matter in tlie flowers and 

 seeds of hay, which are generally thrown away. All 

 these ingredients are bruised and chopped together ; a 



and the mixture is then left to itself for a few hours 

 until a slight fermentation lias set in, when it is put 

 into square moulds, made into cakes, and left to dry in 



mucilage of barley-flour is added, with a little salt ; ' a current of warm air. 



THE SUPPLY AND DEMAND FOR R I D I N G- H O R SE S. 



There may be some who do not care to meet the 

 tenant farmer with a double-barrel in his hand; but 

 there are few indeed who are not glad to see him with 

 a good horse under him. We believe, in fact, the 

 country gentleman would scarcely enjoy the best of all 

 field sports as he should do, without he had the farmers 

 to share it with him. This kind of sympathy, more- 

 over, is altogether reciprocal. At a hunt dinner there 

 is no toast given or responded to more heartily than 

 "The Farmers;" while at an agricultural gathering we 

 all know how genuine are the cheers and tally-hoes that 

 welcome " Fox-hunting." Mr. Hudson, of Castle-acre, 

 well represented the body of which he is so distinguished 

 a member, when he said at East Dereham, only a 

 few week since, that " the class in whose name he spoke 

 were always with them (the members of the Norfolk 

 Hunt) in heart, if they were not on their horses. He 

 was only surprised there was a landlord in the county 

 opposed to foxes. Such a man was no friend to his 

 tenants. Two packs of hounds, he could show by 

 figures, were worth a hundred thousand a-year to the 

 country; and he was surprised that any piirson, whether 

 owner or occupier, should be opposed to their being kept 

 up." 



This is high authority, and the only question is 

 whether the farmers quite act up to their character. 

 No doubt the majority are with the hounds in 

 their hearts, if they be not there or thereabouts on 

 their horses. But to come straight to the point, have 

 they the horses to go with ? The world, or perhaps more 

 properly the sporting world, answers, as a rule, "de- 

 cidedly not." There has been a deal of discussion 

 going on, of late, both in print and private, on the diffi- 

 culty of getting a reallygood weight-carrying horse; and 

 one of the commonest deductions drawn from this is, 

 that the farmers do not pay the attention they should 

 to breeding him. They may be prodigal in their prices 

 for Shorthorn bulls, especially nice as to the purity of 

 their Down flock, and particular even as to their varie- 

 ties of Dorkings and Cochins. But, notwithstanding 

 that they generally have one or two coming on, they 

 are more than careless as to the material from which 

 to make good hacks and hunters. Almost any kind 

 of mare, crossed with anything that may be 

 handy, is generally considered amjily sufficient; and 

 the consequence is, that a tenant with a clever young 

 one in his stable is something to talk of. We still em- 

 phasize Mr. Shaw and his two-year-old, and Mr. 

 Battams and the four-year-old. 



We have often, ere now, dwelt upon this subject, 

 and we certainly should not continue to do so, were it 

 not for two well-established facts. Good horses — 



hunters, hacks, and harness horses — are wanted more 

 than ever they were. Nothing sells so readily, either 

 for the home or foreign market. We naturally look, 

 in the first place, to the farmers for the supply. It 

 may, however, be argued that these are slow to enter 

 into such a hazardous pursuit as horse-breeding. But 

 our second great fact is, that, as a rule, tenants do 

 breed riding stock, but that they do not go about the 

 business as they should do. As Mr. Robert Smith 

 says, in the new number of the Journal, " there is a 

 want of system in our arrangement and management." 

 The natural result of such a course would be what he 

 goes on to maintain, that " the horse is not a popular 

 animal to breed." Under such circumstances it would 

 be extraordinary if he were. With more care and 

 "system" it is yet a very open question whether he 

 might not become both popular and profitable. 

 Another commentator, in the Sporting Magazine, 

 and dating from so classic a shire as Northampton, 

 thus amusingly describes how agricultui-ists, nine 

 times in ten, set about horse-breeding. 



" There is many a large farmer and wealthy yeoman 

 in the midland districts of England, who, whilst he 

 studies with his whole attention, and all the assistance 

 of science, how to breed fat cattle or unwieldy pigs for 

 Smithfield market and that jubilee of obesity the Baker- 

 street show, neglects, as it would seem purposely, the 

 very elements of success when raising an animal, the 

 perfection of which would return him one hundred per 

 cent, upon the capital expended. The general course 

 adopted is as follows : John Bull has a good useful 

 mare (N.B. tiseful, as applied to the equine race, in- 

 variably signifies an animal you would not have at a 

 gift) ; which mare he and his have ridden to market, 

 driven in a tax-cart, put in the plough, and called upon 

 to render every service to which a quadruped can be put. 

 Nay, there is a tradition that young John once rode her 

 with the hounds, and th;it she jumped everything 

 that came in her way with him — gates, hedges, 

 stiles, and the famous Brimmersley Brook. But 

 this account is rendered somewhat apocryphal by 

 its having occurred when John was returning 

 from a coursing dinner at which much drink was 

 consumed, and the chase, according to his own version, 

 having taken place by moonlight. Well, the old mare, 

 when completely worn out, instead of being put quietly 

 into the grave, or suffered to repose upon her laurels, 

 is condemned to the cares of motherhood, and, for this 

 purpose, is submitted to any travelling stallion that 

 happens to be in the neighbourhood, totally irrespec- 

 tive of all combinations in make, shape, and quality. 

 Both may be weak in the back, long in the legs, faulty 



