344 Report on the Agriculture of 



It is, however, with the stud that we have at present to do, and 

 when I add that there are 650 brood-mares, some idea will be 

 realised of the magnificence and extent of this undertaking. I 

 am glad to be able to assist the reader by the accompanying plan 

 (Fig. 2), which also gives a good idea of the manner in which an 

 Hungarian estate is traversed by roads lined with acacias. The 

 stud is managed by a separate staff of officials, all of whom are 

 soldiers dressed in uniform. Mezohegyes gives the idea of a 

 military station of some importance, and the grand ranges of 

 stables, offices, and residences is most imposing. At the head of 

 the stud is Colonel Horvath de Szalaber, who received us most 

 hospitably, and took great pains to explain his system of breed- 

 ing horses, which he has reduced to a science. 



I will first quote from a letter, in which Colonel Horvath 

 gives his own account of the origin and present state of his stud, 

 and then narrate what I myself saw at this wonderful place : — 



" Deab Mr. Wrightson, — " Mezohegyes, Nov. 16, 1873. 



" You will be very kind in excusing my late answer, but the auction, 

 the Exhibition at Vienna, where I have been with so many horses, and the 

 guests visiting Mezohegyes, kept me from writing to you sooner. My answers 

 shall follow your inquiries in the same order. 



" 1st. 'J'he stud was constituted in 1785. 



" 2Dd. The race of horses is throughout half-bred. We have had two studs of 

 half-blood Arabian mares (Schagya and Gidran) since the years 1825 and 

 1827. Two studs of English mares (Furiosa and Abugress) since the years 

 1841-42. Also the family of Nonius, obtained from France in 1815. Two 

 studs of the ancient blood of Lippicza, which is a mixture of Spanish and 

 Arabian blood, since the year 1807 ; and latelj% within the last ten years, we 

 have begun to form a stud of Norfolk blood with stallions of that race and 

 mares of different indigenous famihes. 



" 3rd. We have 650 mares, or thereabouts, namelj', G9 Schagya, 67 Gidran, 

 72 Furiosa, 76 Abugress, 38 Majestosa (Lippicza blood), 75 Conversano, and 

 other imported mares from Lippicza, 220 Nonius mares, and the rest are of 

 Norfolk blood, bred here. 



"4th. The sires used in bringing out the Mezohegyes stud are either 

 thorough-bred English and Arabian stallions, or half-bred stallions belonging 

 to the families already mentioned, and for long established at Mezohegyes, as 

 explained in paragraph 7. 



" In families where there is no possibility of using English or Arabian full- 

 blood horses with advantage, I employ stallions of the same blood, taking care 

 not to breed too closelj'. 



" 5th. The original character of the mares which at first composed the stud 

 was a mixture of Arabian and Hungarian blood, but for the last 30 or 40 years 

 it has been gradually transformed by imported sires. 



" 6th. The object of the stud is to produce stallions of various size and blood 

 for the use of the different parts of the kingdom. 



" 7th. The principle kept in view in breeding is very simple. It. is the 

 gi-adual improvement of a family by the introduction of nobler and higher 

 blood, while at the same time the type of the family is retained. Where I 

 want more blood I apply full-blood horses according to the previous breeding 

 of the particular family. The produce, when strong enough, is served once 

 more by a thorough-bred, and then I return back to a sire of the original 



