49 



been selected from the rest, they should be taken 

 ten or twenty at a time by rough riders of light 

 weight, and submitted to a trial of some hours' 

 duration. The animals which went through this 

 satisfactorily should be divided into two portions : 

 one should be returned to their old pasturage to 

 remain at their then stature ; while the other portion 

 should be made to occupy a somewhat better pas- 

 turage in order that their offspring might acquire 

 greater stature, the rest to be drafted and sold. 

 When old enough the enlarged stock should be 

 tried, and such as went through it well should be 

 kept, and turned out into a little better pasturage 

 than that in which they had been reared, while 

 those rejected should be drafted and sold. It is 

 only in this very gradual manner that the stature 

 of a race can be increased to the point required. 

 Ponies of a pure race being so vigorous as to be 

 wholly unfitted for rich pasturage, they become 

 upon it balls of fat. None of our native ponies 

 under the plan now proposed would be enlarged 

 or withdrawn from their miserable pasturage un- 

 less their form and action were good ; the only 

 change then effected would be a pasturage a little 

 better. Any further enlargement would be made 

 to depend upon the manner in which they had 

 been found to bear the preceding one." 

 His plan has at all events the great merit that it 

 proposes to seek the limit of enlargement in the 

 half-wild ponies without risking loss of hardiness 

 and other valuable qualities by pampering. 



