Suffolks 27 



The capacity to thrive well on a scanty diet, the drawing 

 instinct, and the docility, are the characters which ought to be 

 well developed. The world, as it is now, requires reliability above 

 all things, and gradually the reliable horse — the horse that will do 

 its utmost and will cause a minimum of trouble, the horse that 

 will keep soundest and breed longest — must gradually become more 

 and more a favourite. 



Buyers from America, Australia, Africa, and from our neigh- 

 bours, Russia, Austria, and Germany, are constant visitors to 

 Suffolk. It is thought by many that the Punch horse is pre- 

 dominantly suited for army crosses. Those who come to buy 

 naturally wish to obtain the best animals, and unfortunately there 

 are but comparatively (e\v Suffolks in the country. Good prices 

 are offered and gradually the best blood is being taken from our 

 shores. A day must come when good Suffolks will make still 

 higher prices, for the demand is certain to increase. Rather let 

 the Suffolk breeders refuse good offers and keep a few more mares 

 of the best blood in the country so that the quality of good stock 

 will increase, than sell them to be deported whilst yet they are so 

 urgently required in their own country. If it had not been for 

 a few loyal Suffolk breeders who have refused to sell their best 

 horses and mares at any price, even to-day the Suffolk would be 

 no longer the horse it is. Unless drastic steps are taken the 

 Suffolk horse in this country will gradually deteriorate and the 

 painstaking work of the early breeders will be lost for ever. 



The Suffolk Horse Society, noticing the demand for the best 

 blood, particularly in respect to mares and fillies, started a worthy 

 scheme of denomination mares, which will also do a great deal 

 for the Suffolk breed for this and future generations. 



In conclusion, it is interesting to note that although at the 

 present day the various breeds of stock no longer compete with 

 each other in the same class, except when it is a matter of judging 

 respectively milking or beef qualities, yet at the meetings of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society from 1839 to 1862 there was a general 

 class for heavy horses of all breeds. Shire, Clydesdale, and Cross- 

 bred competed with the Suffolk in regard to general merits as 

 agricultural horses, and during the twenty-two years one hundred 

 and sixty prizes were divided between four classes — aged horses, 

 two-year-old colts, mares and foals, and two-year-old fillies. At 

 the Oxford Show in 1839 only two prizes were offered, and whilst 

 a Suffolk mare won the aged horse class the honour of the best 

 mare and foal passed to another breed. The following year at 

 Cambridge the results were somewhat similar, a Suffolk winning 



