CHAPTER X. 

 BREEDING. 



The increase in number of horse-breeders— Why farmers should 

 breed horses -Mares rejected for work, but valuable for breeding 

 —Treatment of breeding mares— Selection and pairing— Horse- 

 dealers and their tricks. 



L^ ' NGLISH farmers breed more horses now than 

 — * they used to years ago. When raihvays were first 

 made people said that horses would become so cheap that 

 it would not pay to breed them as there would be so few 

 required. Those who prophesied this, however, made a 

 great mistake : I am told there is more than double the 

 number of horses in England as compared with the time 

 when the first railway was made. I cannot, of course, 

 vouch for the truth of this statement, as I do not remember 

 how things were going on at that time, but I know there 

 has been a large increase in the number of horses in this 

 country during the last thirty years. Many of them come 

 from Ireland and Russia. 



I believe in some parts of the country there are three 

 colts bred at the present time to every one that was reared 

 years ago. At that time many farmers would not think of 

 breeding, no matter what mares they had by them, but it 



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