THREE POWERFUL SOCIETIES 443 



de Rothschild, Sir Merrik Burrell, Bart, Eustace Barlow, 

 T. Wickham Boynton, J. L. Nickisson, Viscount Emlyn ; and 

 Gerald B. Manley (Hon. Secretary and Treasurer), 23 

 Bucklersbury, E.G. 



The second Report, issued in 1906, announced that 

 " twenty-nine mares had been presented by the public to the 

 Society," and that one of these was a young mare from the 

 War Department, which had met with an accident. The 

 Society then possessed a stud of 50 mares, distributed mostly 

 among farmers and others practically interested in the breed- 

 ing of hunters. Local committees are elected to do the work 

 of the Society under rules and conditions laid down by the 

 Society. The " custodian " becomes a member of the Society 

 by paying 2 a year for each mare lent to him by the Society. 

 He may use her at suitable work, but if entered at any horse 

 show it must be as the property of the Society, while the 

 fees are paid by the custodian and the prizes gained belong 

 to him. The mare must be served by " a sire selected and 

 approved by the local committee," but the custodian pays 

 the fee and the foal belongs absolutely to him, with 

 the proviso that the first and second fillies foaled of any 

 mare shall on or before 3Oth October in the year in which 

 they respectively attain three and a half years of age be 

 offered to the local committee," with the option to purchase 

 until 3 ist December, "at such prices, not exceeding 35, as 

 may be agreed upon." 



Special terms are often obtained from stallion owners for 

 the Society's mares. 



The concerted action taken by the three powerful 

 Societies, The Royal Commission on Horse-breeding, The 

 Hunters' Improvement Society, and the Brood Mare Society, 

 to introduce a national system of horse-breeding, deserves 

 every possible support as an earnest and well-considered 

 effort to guard against the recurrence of the dangers, the 

 difficulties, and the embarrassments which were evident 

 during the course of the Boer War (1899-1902). 



Algernon Turnor, Godby Hall, Melton Mowbray, has 

 specially prepared the following historical notes for insertion 

 in these pages : 



" It is only in time of peace and by the exercise of foresight 

 many years in advance, that adequate provision can be made 



