THE PRACTICAL STUD GROOM. 



CHAPTER I. 

 PLANNING A STUD FARM. 



" In my wanderings up and down England I have 

 never met with an ideal thoroughbred stud. Beautiful 

 places I have frequently seen, but there has always been 

 something wanting only too frequently many desirable 

 things * * * * I am sufficiently sceptical by nature 

 to doubt whether at present in the United Kingdom such a 

 place as an ideal stud exists." 



So wrote the Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacocke, 

 Soil, Grass and Game Specialist, in an essay entitled " The 

 Ideal Thoroughbred Stud," published in 1906. It is 

 extremely doubtful whether, among persons qualified by 

 practical experience to give an opinion on the subject, there 

 would be found many, or even any, to dispute the reverend 

 gentleman's dictum. But the hundred and one items that 

 go to make up an absolutely perfect stud farm are so varied 

 in their nature that it is almost impossible to combine them 

 all within the four corners of any given plot of land, 

 whether containing one hundred or one thousand acres. 

 Good climate, soil, herbage, water supply, shelter, eleva- 

 tion, drainage, stabling and fencing are essential to the 



