86 



of all live stock in Ireland, it was proposed 

 to send over selected stallions, thoroughbred 

 and roadster, for the use of owners of mares 

 in the horse-breeding districts. There was 

 much diversity of opinion on the propriety 

 of establishing hackney sires in a country so 

 famed for its hunters, and the principal 

 object of the Commission was to take the 

 opinions of experts on the proposed step. 



While the majority of witnesses were 

 averse from the introduction of the hackney 

 sire, on the ground that the happy-go-lucky 

 methods of the small Irish farmer would 

 lead to intermingling of blood to the ultimate 

 deterioration of the Irish hunter, it was 

 generally acknowledged that the bone and 

 substance of the hackney was eminently 

 desirable in many districts to improve the 

 character of the local stock. 



Could a workable system of mare regis- 

 tration have been devised to prevent hunter 

 mares being sent to hackney sires in those 

 counties where hunter-breeding is a valuable 

 industry, there can be no doubt that the 

 introduction of such sires would lay the 

 foundation in Ireland of the breed of high 

 class harness-horses in which Britain is so 

 singularly deficient, and which could be pro- 

 duced in Ireland with as much, if not greater, 



