Lovers of the Horse 133 



THE CANADIAN NATIONAL BUREAU OF BREEDING, LIMITED 



TllK Canadiuu National Bureau of Birc-din^-. Limited, was started in the autumn 

 of 1!)()7 by John F. Ryan, having for its objeet the imi)r()vement of the 

 l)ree(l of horses in Canada. It was incorporated under Dominion Charter 

 in 1!)()S, and its growth has been so rajnd and its influence so far-reaching that in a 

 short time it has come to 1)e perhaps the most important institution coimected with 

 horse breeding on the continent. 



The working of this Bureau is simple. Thoroughbred stallions are secured by 

 purchase and donation from owners all over the continent, and are placed with re- 

 s])onsi])le farmers in Canada for service with cold-bloodeil mares. The service fee 

 is a nominal one, and goes to the man who keei)s the horse. The thoroughbred cross 

 produces an ideal saddle or cavalry horse, an.l as these are in great demand, the 

 Bureau has been flooded with apj/lications from all i)arts of the country from Cape 

 Breton Island to the Yukon. It is estinnited that it will take at least five years to 

 com])lete the work of the Bureau, which' by that time should be the finest in the world, 

 and a national asset which will bring millions into the country every year. 



A tremendous impetus was given the Bureau by the earnest support given it by 

 tlu' War Ofl^ice. In fact, the Bureau was hailed as a solution of the cavalry remount 

 problem, and is now looked u])on as the only feasible plan of securing an Imperial 

 cavalry reserve. The War Ottice Iniyers are travelling throughout the country in- 

 ducing farmers to breed their mares to the Buicau thoroughbreds, ami showing them 

 that there is a ready market awaiting them. England pays $'•200 for a trooper, and 

 $;500 for a charger delivered at Liverpool, and as horses can l)e raised very cheaply 

 in Camida. especially in the western provinces, the breeding of these remounts is a 

 profitable business for the farmer. The west is the natural nursery for the nation's 

 cavalry. Alberta is larger tlian either France or Germany, Saskatchewan is twice 

 as large as Great Britain and Ireland, and British Columbia is twelve hundred miles 

 long and four hundred miles wide. There are thousands of acres of richest pasture 

 in these provinces, and the horses raised there are of the hardiest sort. 



But the work of the Bureau is not confined to that ])art of Canada. New Bruns- 

 wick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Ontario are just as enthusi- 

 astic, and ajjart from the business of it, there is strong national sentiment behind the 

 new organization. 



It is in the interests of Canada to secure for England if possible the best cavalry 

 in the world. It is recalled that during tlie Boer war. the Mother Country was at 

 her wit's end for cavalry horses. She had to get twelve thousand horses from the 

 .Vrgentino and send them to the Cape of Good IIo])e, and she had to pay top prices 

 to the Uimgarians for seven thousand five hundred horses. It is estimated that dur- 

 ing that war, England spent seven millions of dollars for horses, and only the smallest 

 fraction of this immense sum found its way to Canada, simply because there were 

 no suitable horses to be had here. The liureau is clianging all this, and should there 



