BEST AGE TO BREED FROM. 109 



as they are worked. Ships must now all be registered at Lloyd's, 

 in the classes to which they are entitled by their condition ; and 

 horses, as well as mares, should be registered in the same way, 

 according to the opinion which the government inspector may form 

 as to their health and the probability of getting or producing sound 

 and useful foals. The purchaser would call for the registration- 

 mark, when he asked for the pedigree of the horse he was about 

 to buy; and if it was not a favorable one, he would, of course, be 

 placed upon his guard. If this plan could be carried out in prac- 

 tice, as well as it looks on paper, much good might be done, I am 

 assured ; but we all know that inspectors are but mortals, and that 

 they are liable to be biassed in more ways than one. Still, I be- 

 lieve that the evil is becoming so glaring, that something must 

 soon be done ; and I see no other mode so likely as this to be ad- 

 vantageous to the interests of the purchaser and user of the horse. 



BEST AGE TO BREED FROM. 



THE GENERAL OPINION throughout England is, that one or 

 other of the parents should be of mature age; and that if a very 

 young mare is chosen, the horse should not be less than eight, ten, 

 or twelve years old. If both are very young or very old, the pro 

 duce is generally small and weakly ; but by adopting the plan above- 

 mentioned, the services of young and old may be fully utilized. A 

 great many of our very best performers on the turf have been got 

 by old stallions ; as, for instance, Whisker, son of Waxy, in his 

 twenty-second year ; Emilius, son of Orville, in his twentieth ; 

 Voltigeur and Newminster, whose sires were respectively twenty-one 

 and seventeen ; Blink Bonny, who was got by Melbourne, in his 

 twentieth year; and Wild Dayrell, by Ion, when seventeen years old. 

 To these may be added, Gemma di Vergy, Lifeboat, and Gunboat, 

 three celebrated sons of Sir Hercules, and all got by him after he 

 was twenty years old the last named when he was twenty-five 

 years of age. So, also, many were out of old mares ; including 

 Priam, whose dam was twenty when she dropped him; Crucifix, 

 the daughter of Octaviana, when twenty-two years old ; Lottery, 

 out of Mandane, in her twentieth year ; and Brutandorf, produced 

 by the same mare when she was twenty-two. From these instances, 

 the breeder may conclude that age is no bar to success, if matched 

 with youth on the other side; but the instances of success in breed- 

 ing from two aged parents are rare indeed. It is next to be ascer- 

 tained what is the earliest age at which this animal can be relied 

 on for breeding ; and here, again, example is better than theory. 

 The most remarkable instance of moderate success in adopting this 

 plan is in that of The Ugly Buck, whose dam, Monstrosity, was 

 put to Venison when only a two-year-old. The horse, also, was 

 not more than seven, and the dam of Monstrosity bred her in her 

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