LIVE STOCK OF THE FARM 



VOLUME III 



CHAPTER I 

 BREEDS OF HORSES— i. HEAVY HORSES 



Clydesdales 



By ARCHIBALD MACNEILAGE 



Scotland had a good breed of horses from a very early period. 

 Of the early history of the Clydesdale breed it is difficult to speak 

 with certainty. The writer has dealt at considerable length with 

 this subject elsewhere, and it is hardly necessary here to say more, 

 with respect to the place of origin of the breed, than that the dis- 

 tricts of Clydesdale and Avondale would appear to have been the 

 home of its ancestors, if a home is to be found for them anywhere. 

 The draught horse as we know it, is obviously the creation of a 

 much later period than that in which the early Stuart kings are said 

 to have done something to improve the native breed. It is a type 

 which was only evolved after the conditions of the country became 

 favourable to the peaceful art of breeding, and the demand for such 

 a horse arose. The peace following the Revolution settlement of 

 1689, the Union of 1707, the development of trade, and the making 

 of roads, all these called for a horse that could pull as well as carry, 

 and the type of horse required was produced by the farmers of 

 Clydesdale. The foundation was already there; it is only a question 

 of how this foundation was built upon. Tradition affirms that it 

 was through the introduction of Flemish blood that improvement 

 was first effected. Whether Flemish stallions were imported by 

 John Paterson of Lochlyoch, or by the sixth Duke of Hamilton — 

 and there is no reason why John Paterson should not have had a 



Vol III. I 84 



