THE SPORTING WOkl.D. 103 



der and trouble of rearing, and is ridden by the 

 farmer, no one else wishing to become a purchaser. 

 But farmers (though the most imperturbable 

 of men, are the hardest of any to persuade out 

 of any old customs or into any new ones) have 

 seen their own interests in becoming breeders as 

 well as agriculturists, have improved on the 

 "modus operandi" in breeding, and indeed in 

 most things. They have become accustomed to 

 see fine colts and fine horses, have (many of 

 them) learned the secret of producing such, and 

 have risen from comparative poverty to compara- 

 tive affluence ; this they would never have done but 

 from the effects produced by hunting and racing ; 

 not, I admit, from one horse running against another 

 for stakes ; but the getting horses fitted for such 

 purpose has so accustomed men to see fine horses 

 that they will have them (or rather their produce) 

 for their use, and the breeder finding this to be the 

 case, finds it his interest to breed such, or at all 

 events horses approaching the race horse in breed. 



