BREEDING. 281 



tastes, means, and residential qualifications enable them to 

 carry it on, and at the same time conduce to its success. 

 Living in the country, for example, in a house surrounded 

 by good grass lands, a more delightful species of pastime, 

 or one of a more engrossing kind, can scarcely be sought 

 for or imagined, while the practical question of making 

 money of it may be met with the assurance that it can 

 be done. 



At the present crisis it is especially advisable that 

 attention should be given to horse-breeding, as it is a matter 

 to which, when times are bad and land-culture unprofitable, 

 lady farmeresses and others may turn their thoughts with 

 greater chance of profit than when sheep, cattle, and every 

 description of farm produce brought more grist to the 

 agriculturist's mill. Land rent is low, fodder cheap and 

 plentiful, and labour easily obtained. Some years ago, when 

 seasons were good, and farmers could sell their stock at a 

 fair profit, horse-culture might not under ordinary circum- 

 stances have been found to pay ; but it is entirely different 

 now, and never perhaps was there a period at which good 

 horses, especially high-class hunters, were in more substantial 

 demand than at present. I know some persons, particu- 

 larly in Ireland, who are ready to cry " No " to this state- 

 ment, but the most substantial proof of its truthfulness lies 

 in the fact that at sales, as well as at the autumn horse- 

 shows, almost everything that is good is speedily bought 

 up at fairly remunerative prices, while only those who 

 demand excessive rates for second and third-rate animals 

 carry their stock home with them, and grumble at 



