8 ENGLAND S HORSES, 



neous aids are much needed, since not only are the peasant 

 farmers in Austria comparatively uneducated and inexperienced 

 in horse-breeding, but the climate in that country is for the 

 most part far less suited for rearing young stock than in 

 England. 



" While, however, the general measures adopted by the 

 Austrian government for improving the breed of horses are on 

 the whole simple and apparently efficacious, their military regu- 

 lations for the formation of reserves are complicated, and would 

 seem scarcely calculated to attain the object for which they were 

 framed. About a year since a new horse conscription law was 

 passed, of which the following are the principal provisions : — 

 ' The whole country is divided into levying districts, and one or 

 more central places of reception are appointed for each. Every 

 year the War Department communicates to the civil authorities 

 the number of horses which would be required to complete the 

 army from a peace to a war footing, on the basis of the existing 

 organisation or ordre de hataiUe. On the basis of this informa- 

 tion, the Minister of Agriculture, who is aware, from reports 

 annually received through the district prefects, from the chiefs 

 or overseers of parishes, of the number of horses of different 

 classes to be found in each district, which are also classified 

 according to their probable fitness as riding, draught, or pack 

 horses— apportions to each district the number of animals it 

 has to furnish. At the commencement of each year commis- 

 sioners are appointed to each levying district, consisting gene- 

 rally of the civil prefect or his deputy, a field or other officer of 

 the army or landwehr, and a veterinary surgeon, whose ultimate 

 duty it is to pass horses into the service. Each commission is 

 assisted by three sworn valuers, experts, chosen if possible from 

 agricultural or other societies. On a mobilisation being ordered 

 the War Department announces the number of horses required, 

 and the time when they are to be delivered, and the civil 

 authorities summon all owners to bring their horses over four 

 years of age to the levying centres. Certain horses are ex- 

 empted from levy, such as those belonging to the Imperial 



