AND OTHER SKETCHES 27 



Such county shows, in addition to the direct encourage- 

 ment so offered to breeders would supply to buyers a 

 valuable directory, furnishing information respecting the 

 sections of country in which they would be most likely 

 to secure the class of horses they dealt in. 



A short time since an official estimate placed a value 

 of eighty millions of dollars on the horse stock of this 

 province. Such a valuable interest surely deserves en- 

 couragement, and if the same were forthcoming to a 

 reasonable extent this country would soon attract the 

 attention of European dealers. Many foreign govern- 

 ments are lavish in their expenditure to secure improve- 

 ment in the breeding of horses, and the result has been 

 so satisfactory that in France in 1908 the demand from 

 foreign buyers became so great that the government 

 found it necessary to issue orders refusing to allow, for 

 a specified time, the further exportation of certain 

 breeds. 



Our climate is a favorable one for the production of 

 a good class of equines. Canadian-bred horses have 

 held their own in the prize ring in competition against 

 the best in America. At the great horse shows held in 

 New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, etc., 

 our representatives have won high honors and the 

 demand from foreign buyers for this quality of stock has 

 always been in excess of the supply. Even in England, 

 where the breeding of the saddle and hunter horse has 

 been brought to the highest perfection, the Hon. Adam 

 Beck secured first honors with several animals bred in 

 the counties of Elgin and Middlesex, and his victories 

 were the more notable from the fact that the popular 

 member of the Ontario Government was in the saddle and 

 pitted against him were a number of the crack gentlemen 

 riders of Europe. 



The action of the breeding bureaus, established through 

 the influence of the Ontario and Montreal Jockey Clubs, 

 in sending thoroughbred stallions, free of cost, to many 

 sections all over the Dominion, cannot fail to be produc- 

 tive of much good in improving the quality of horses for 



