TO Aug.. 1 910.] Tlie Stud Horse Industry. 5or 



quietly in the future as they have done in the past and be content to have 

 hiilf-a-dozen unsound horses travelling in a district, upsetting the good which the 



sound ones are doing It is fast becoming an actual necessity that 



breeders should be protected and the country freed from unsound animals, 

 whatever breed they may represent. 



Reverting to the matter of breeding, on the top of all that I have said, 

 vour attention mav be directed to the almost universal experience as regards 

 tht; t.iv.-diii^ of .ilnv:-t ,:!! kind ^A k'_', < ' i-^ -tnk. aiul to the fact that, 



STOLEN DUCHESS. 

 I'^oaled 1901. Champion Shire Mare (London), 1907. 



with the exception perhaps of Merino sheep, no breed of animal has been 

 brought to a high state of perfection until the breeding operations have had 

 the advantage and guidance of a Stud Book. Witness the prepotency and 

 uniformity of type of such breeds as the Shorthorn, Hereford, Ayrshire, 

 Jersey, and other breeds of cattle; of the British breeds of sheep; of the 

 English hackney horse. Note the improvement for the purposes for 

 which they are bred, of the English thoroughbred, and the American 

 trotter, since these breeds have been controlled by registration. Even in 

 the case of Merino sheep and Australian Shorthorn cattle, although there 

 have been no public Stud Books, nevertheless the breeding of the best 

 flocks and herds has been almost wholly controlled by the private records 

 of each line of blood ; which records have been kept as accurately and 

 used as religiously for guidance as the public Stud Books established in 

 respect of other breeds. 



It is significant too, and ought to be a lesson to the devotees of the 

 much older pursuit of draught horse breeding, that stock breeders in most 

 of the younger countries seeking to gain eminence in the world's markets, 

 have generally taken advantage of the Stud Books existent in older coun- 

 tries, and have copied their methods. For instance, the Shorthorn Herd 

 Book in the Argentine is as rigid as regards entries as the English Herd 

 Book, and every animal admitted must trace back in pedigree on both the 

 sire's and dam's side to the English Shorthorn Herd Book. 



