TO THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



vvl /( ii is the greater source of this immense loss to tk 

 agriculture of the country — " the ignorance and obstinacy 

 of the servant and the cow-leech, or the ignorance and 

 supineness of the owner. ^'' The Horse, in a state of 

 nature, even the colt — until subjected to ignorant hand- 

 ling and cruel management, is much healthier than after 

 he comes under the hands of him who ought to be his 

 kindest friend. 



If such be the immense mortality in England, what 

 nust it be among Horses in this country, where not one 

 farmer in a hundred knows how to tell the colic from 

 the botts, or the thrush from the scratches — ignorant 

 alike of symptoms and of treatment ? 



Properly appreciating the importance of a constant 

 supply of Horses for their cavalry, as one of the most 

 efficient arms of her military power — the French Govern- 

 ment takes it upon itself to supply its thirty-six thousand 

 communes with stallions, whose services are put at the 

 lowest rate, the average being set down at 5 or 10 francs, 

 (one or two dollars,) and these stallions are required to 

 be not under a certain age — four at the least — nor under 

 a certain standard of height, according as they are tho- 

 rough-bred, half-bred, or slow draft: 1 m. 49 centimes, 

 or a fraction over 14.2 for thorough-bred ; 1 m. 55 c. 

 for half-bred ; and 1 m. 55 c. for heavy draft stallions — 

 and undergo every year rigid inspection, to guard not 

 only against palpable deformity of shape, but against 

 any latent or transmissible diseases. Opposed as is the 

 genius of our political institutions to regulations, too 

 minute, of individual industry and concerns, yet it is 

 hard to say why a planter's tobacco or his butter should 

 be subjected to rigid inspection, and condemned and 

 taken from him for bad quality or short weight, and yet 

 that any fat, lazy, lounging rapscallion should be allowcil 

 to set up a public stallion without spirit or action, ain< 



