258 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



ment of size in individuals. In the counties of Lincoln and 

 Cambridge, whence the great London drays are chiefly sup- 

 plied, a breeder measures his success by the stature of the 

 individuals which he is able to rear. At the age of two and 

 one-half years the colts are often seventeen hands high. 

 They are bought at this age by graziers near the capital and 

 used in the light work of the plow until four years old, when 

 they are fit for the services to which they are destined, and 

 disposed of at high prices. 



In 1879 a society was organized in England 

 for the purpose of preparing and publishing a 

 stud book of the Shire or Cart horse of England, 

 and in February, 1880, the first volume of the 

 work, which has since grown to fourteen vol- 

 umes, was issued. In an introduction to this 

 first volume by R. S. Reynolds, M. R. C. V. S., 

 it is stated that 



The draft horse of the present day undoubtedly, and un- 

 fortunately, is one of mixed and impure breed; there exist 

 few, if any, whose genealogy on both dam's and sire's side 

 can be traced for even four generations. The assumption of 

 an admixture of extrinsic blood is made more evident by 

 comparison of the conformation and color of the existing 

 race with the Shire horse of seventy years ago. Authorities 

 upon horse-breeding forty or fifty years since were ceaseless 

 in their objections to the slow, ponderous movement of the 

 draft horses of their day, and strongly urged the necessity 

 for crossing them with animals of more slender build, in 

 order to attain increased activity and quicker pace. A large 

 section of the horse-working community is now suffering 

 from a too extended application of this crossing, possibly 

 because breeders did not pursue an intelligent and syste- 

 matic course in the selection of suitable animals for the 

 attainment of their intended object, leaving too much to 

 fortuitous circumstances, and probably attaching too much 

 importance to activity, which, if attained at the expense of 



