86 England's horses, 



and they buy for all purposes, military and trade. Naturally, 

 too, they prefer mares, because these can be sold afterwards for 

 stud purposes. When asked as to his knowledge of the export 

 of horses to Eussia, Mr. Phillips's answer is worthy of note : — 



" The export of horses to Eussia has been nothing in my time ; hut in years 

 to come we shall have all to go to Russia for horses, for I believe it is the only 

 country in Europe that has good horses. I know that some of our dealers 

 have gone over now to Russia to try to buy horses, and the French dealers 

 are going there too." 



That our farmers cannot now be got to breed horses to the 

 extent they used is Mr. Edward Greene's opinion, and on these 

 grounds : — 



" I think that the price of bullocks and sheep has acted very much upon the 

 farmer in preventing his breeding horses ; at live or three years old he makes 

 £18 or ±'20 of a bullock, and he is not asked any questions as to whether it has 

 action, or has a spavin, or whether it is a whistler, and he sells it right out; 

 and that has led him to breed bullocks and sheep instead of horses. 



" What class of men did breed principally in Norfolk and Suffolk ? —The 

 farmers breed ; a man farming a large farm would have two or three mares. 

 Then there is another great difficulty about breeding riding horses, which, per- 

 liaps, I had better turn my attention to first. Supposing a farmer begins breed- 

 ing with three mares, if he is succes.'^f al, before he can turn them into money at 

 anything like a marketable price, he will have from ten to twelve animals. 

 There will be the mares with the foals by their sides and those of the three 

 previous years, one, two, and three year old animals, and they take a great 

 deal of room, xmless he has a quantity of poor land ; and I think that now, 

 with the advance in the price of labour, there is a good deal of poor land that 

 would pay better for colts than it would even for bullocks, because a colt after 

 he is a year old, if well fed the first year, which I think is a sine qua no», is 

 really better not to be too highly fed ; he is less likely to throw out ringbones 

 and spavins and splints, and those kind of things. Therefore, I think that, 

 now that the pi-ice of horses is so much better, that kind of laud will be used 

 more for breeding purposes than it has been of late. Then he gets ten or 

 twelve animals on to his farm, and they are a nuisance to him ; unless he has 

 a lax-ge tract of pasture he does not know what to do with his colts. They 

 gnaw his grass and his trees, and are very troublesome to him, particularly in 

 winter. He must have a yard specially for them ; and, unless they fetch a 

 good price, he will not put up with the inconvenience and the discomfort of 

 having a number of young animals running about his farm." 



It is not one class of horse, says the same witness, more than 

 another which is affected by this scarcity, unless, perhaps, it 

 may be harness horses — that is to say, " a carriage horse, a 

 phaeton horse, or a horse to drive in a dog-cart." With hunters 

 again it is not so noticeable, for — 



" The qualifications for a hunter are not of the same description. With a 

 hunter men put i;p with a good deal. A horse that will jump is called a 

 himter, and people manage to find horses in that way ; but for a harness 

 horse you want a certain amount of power and shape to fill the eye, and they 

 are very difficult to get." 



Mr. Church, Manager and Secretary of the General Omnibus 



