Cross-Breeding in Horses. 159 



mile, is unable to " stay." The cause is here, no doubt, beyond 

 our ken ; though it is, no doubt, due to deficiencies in the vital 

 and nervous systems, and especially to the latter. To discover 

 its existence, we presume, is the object of the advisers of four 

 and eight mile races. 



In the absence of proof, we much question whether the first- 

 class racehorses of the present are inferior in endurance to those 

 of former days. Why should they be so ? They are descended 

 from the best mares and the best horses, which have no doubt 

 handed down with their speed that endurance and strength of 

 constitution which contributes so much to make a winner. Want 

 of endurance is not the defect of this race ; put a feather-weight 

 on the back of a weed, and in a light country he will probably 

 beat the most valuable half-bred hunter, even in a long run ; 

 and yet with all this he is nearly valueless. 



Next to the very first-class racehorses — the twenty prizes 

 amongst a thousand blanks — there is no kind of horse of which 

 this country has such reason to be proud as the half-bred, three- 

 parts, and seven-eighths bred hunters, the highest combination 

 in nature of strength and speed. Deriving speed and courage 

 from their Eastern progenitors, bone and substance from their 

 northern ancestors, and action in all their paces from the blending 

 of the two races, they are nearly perfect and decidedly most 

 generally useful. 



When a breed of sheep or of bullocks has reached this point, 

 we seek to perpetuate their excellences by consorting parents who 

 on both sides possess them, avoiding, of course, too great con- 

 sanguinity. We do not resort, as a rule, again and again to the 

 original breeds from whence the improvement has been built up. 

 Why, then, should horses be an exception to this rule ? Why, 

 although the mares of this stamp are considered well adapted for 

 breeding, are the males condemned to be castrated, as unfit for 

 that purpose ? By such practice we not only lose the services 

 of the males in transmitting their good qualities, but deprive 

 one-half the mares of the opportunity of breeding animals as 

 strong and valuable as themselves. The practice is, no doubt, 

 in many respects a matter of convenience ; for weight-carrying 

 hunters are more tractable, and always, as geldings, command 

 good prices ; whilst it is hard to compete with the constant 

 supply of ready-made stallions — good, bad, and indifferent — from 

 racing stables, so long as their friends and owners can persuade 

 breeders of horses and agricultural authorities that the goodness 

 of the fore-legs is of little account, or that a bad thorough-bred 

 stallion is better than a good half-bred. 



Referring again to the general principles which have been 

 laid down respecting the influence of either parent on the off"- 



