THE SCARCITY OF GOOD HORSES. 153 



supply is steadily and surely decreasing I think govern- 

 ment would do well to consider some measure calculated 

 to insure an adequate supply, and thus create a nursery 

 for troop horses. 



It has been suggested by some writers on this subject, 

 that our government should open breeding establish- 

 ments on such a scale as to make it directly influence the 

 quantity and quality of our saddle-horses ; but, inde- 

 pendent of the almost certainty of improper persons by 

 favour or otherwise being placed at the head of such 

 an establishment, it is probable that it would labour 

 under the disadvantage of being unattended by compe- 

 tition, and therefore we should lose the principal thing 

 on which the excellence of production in all things so 

 much depends. 



One cause of the falling-off in the quality of our 

 saddle-horses is the immense quantity of weedy and 

 worthless refuse of the racing studs annually sold off 

 and distributed among the population, who, regardless 

 of their weak and attenuated forms, often breed from 

 them just for the sake of pedigree, and thus are their 

 numbers still further increased. The turf breeders of 

 the present day only put their mares to stallions whose 

 stock have most speed, disregarding every other con- 

 sideration. There is also too much " in and in" breed- 

 ing, merely for the purpose of following up a blood 

 which has had success in racing ; and the natural con- 

 sequence is the constitutional weakness exhibited by 

 many of our present breed of race-horses, which, for the 

 first twelve months of their existence, require not only 



