Cross-B reeding in Horses. 165 



(e) Having duly recognised the claims of thorough-bred horses 

 of the first and second class, we can only advise, with regard to 

 the third and inferior classes, that their services be altogether 

 dispensed with, their place being taken by three-fourths, or half- 

 bred stallions, possessing bone, substance, and good hunting 

 qualifications. And it is such animals as these that deserve 

 encouragement from our great Agricultural Societies, 

 i For the encouragement of horses of this stamp we should be 

 glad to see prizes offered for the best seven-eighths, three-fourths, 

 and half-bred stallions, so that the owners of promising horses 

 might be induced to delay the operation of castration until the 

 animals had undergone the ordeal of the show-yard, and the 

 prize-winners might be launched into the world with the Society's 

 approval. Some of the prizes for ponies might well be dispensed 

 with to provide money, if it be wanting, for this more important 

 purpose. At any rate, it may be hoped that the Council of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society will remove the impediments which 

 shut out such a horse as " British Statesman," the first-prize 

 winner at Battersea, and the second at Leeds, from competing at 

 Newcastle among the stallions for breeding-hunters. The flaw 

 in his pedigree, one-eighth, gave him, no doubt, more bone, 

 sinew, and substance generally, and rendered him fit to carry an 

 extra stone in weight, qualifications which doubtless gained him 

 the prize of 20Z., offered by the gentlemen hunting the North 

 Staffordshire hounds, for the best stallion for hunting horses. 



This suggestion is not meant to imply that prizes for thorough- 

 bred stallions should be dispensed with : on the contrary, if the 

 state of the Society's funds permit, separate prizes should be 

 offered for thorough-bred sires, adapted — 



1. For getting Hunters ; 



2. For Carriage Horses; 



3. For Park Horses, Chargers, or Hacks. 



Prizes in each of these classes would then be assigned to 

 animals differing much in character, but no longer, as at present, 

 to the best racehorse, or according to the rather puzzling and 

 peculiar condition of the prize-sheet, "to the horse best calculated 

 to perpetuate the breed of the sound and the stout thorough- 

 bred horse for general stud-purposes." Such a horse must un- 

 questionably be neither more nor less than the sire of the greatest 

 racehorses of the day. 



But if this is too wide range for an Agricultural Society, the 

 Managers of the Islington horse show may take this hint into 

 consideration. 



Those of our readers who Avere present at the splendid ex- 

 hibition of thorough-bred stallions in the Agricultural Hall last 

 summer, must have been struck with the great variety that 



