60 IRISH DONKEYS FOR SOUTH AFRICA 



they have reached the limit set by bad food, want of 

 shelter, and neglect in selection, in the tiny, half-wild 

 donkeys of the New Forest. The sole luxury in life 

 which the New Forest donkey enjoys is the privilege of 

 rolling in the dust on the fenceless roads on a hot day. 

 Yet he is not ill-tempered, and will draw a forest cart 

 with a couple of women in it at a trot for four or five 

 miles very comfortably. In Wales the small tenants 

 do improve their donkeys by giving them better food 

 than common, and often make a high price for them. 

 Both in Somersetshire, near the coal measures, and in 

 Norfolk, by the coast, the animals are in request, and 

 are recognised as a useful help to the poor man ; but 

 they are as far removed from the prize sixteen-hand 

 animal of Kentucky agricultural shows as the Shetland 

 pony is from the Shire horse. Donkeys are just the 

 kind of animals which the peasant-proprietor finds 

 useful. A proof of it is seen in the number already 

 reared in Ireland and the surplus available for export. 

 But a little organization and intelligent direction 

 would increase the size and double the value of the 

 breed. The means by which general improvements of 

 this kind are effected are quite familiar from previous 

 experience. If a twentieth part of the pains taken to 

 improve the stock of Irish horses, disclosed in the 

 recent Commission on Irish Horse-breeding, were taken 

 to improve the race of Irish donkeys, the peasant- 



