75 



plenty of thoroughbred blood in their veins, 

 and it remained for breeders to select 

 stallions of the right stamp. Hence the 

 demand from all continental countries for 

 Hackney sires which began sixty years 

 ago and which has continued ever since. 



How urgent was the necessity for atten- 

 tion to this department of horse-breeding 

 was very fully demonstrated by Earl Cath- 

 cart in a paper l which was published in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of England about ten years afterwards. 

 Lord Cathcart adopted the practical method 

 of obtaining from friends who had long 

 experience, their opinions on the condition of 

 the breeding of horses other than thorough- 

 breds ; and the communications sent by these 

 gentlemen make up the bulk of the paper 

 referred to. 



There was but one opinion among Lord 

 Cathcart's correspondents who, it must be 

 noted, wrote quite independently of one 

 another. To briefly summarise their state- 

 ments, they deplored the disappearance of 

 the old-fashioned thoroughbred with bone 



1 " Half Bred Horses for Field and Road ; Their 

 Breeding and Management," Journal of the R. A. S. E. 

 vol. xix., part i, No. xxxvii. 



