42 



THE HORSE 



realized something like 70 guineas apiece. They were well bred as a rule, 

 with many of the points we usually associate with the English blood-horse, 

 who doubtless had a share in their production. Many of them were 

 15 hands 3 inches and 16 hands high, with admirable tempers, fair action, 

 and, as a rule, fast in harness. These may have been said to give general 

 satisfaction, the " trade " having bought freely and taken kindly to them. 

 The difficulty of procuring high-class horses and the expense of importation 

 deterred the original company from prosecuting the business, but a very 

 large trade has since sprung up in the useful kinds, and in London a 



CANADIAN HOKSE. 



special sale yard for bi-weekly consignments. Some 40,000 so-called 

 Canadian horses were imported into this country in the year 1897, but 

 rather more than three-fourths of them came from the United States. 

 They appear to be the result of several crosses with the original horses 

 mentioned in the earlier editions of this work ; many Clydesdales, 

 Percherons, and other European sires contributing to the useful breed now 

 all but established. It is thought that America will have always to 

 renew her blood from Europe, as there is a tendency in horses as well 

 as cattle to revert to the type of the country. The severe winters and 

 hot summers are very trying to the constitution, and by the rule of the 

 survival of the fittest there should be developed a breed more hardy than 

 the stock from which they are derived. Nature, however, seeks compensa- 

 tion in some other direction, and stature is sacrificed, as in the hardy 

 Shetland and Iceland pony, unless, as suggested above, the blood is 

 recruited from the original stock. 



