66 SHIRE HORSES AT ISLINGTON 



8-J feet ; his weight, i ton i^ cwt. His shoe 

 measured 21 inches round from heel to heel, to which 

 the space between the calkins must be added. The 

 stallion's height sometimes runs to 18 hands, and 

 a mane 6 feet long is not uncommon. The average 

 shire horse begins work in the country at four years 

 old, and at five and a half years old goes to town, 

 where two do the work of three ordinary draught- 

 horses, and save the cost of stabling for one. The 

 pedigrees of 16,480 stallions and 22,768 mares are 

 recorded in the ' Shire Horse Stud Book/ This is not 

 a mere catalogue, but has a practical object. Though 

 'like breeds like/ it is found by experience that the 

 animals of oldest descent, when a breed is once 

 established, produce the most uniform stock. This 

 rule is what the foreign buyer relies on, and it is the 

 world outside England on whom our breeders mainly 

 rely to make the demand for our shire horses keep 

 pace with the supply. Ten years ago three hundred 

 foals were bought for Germany, six hundred 'certificates' 

 of exported sires were issued for America, and it was in 

 evidence that many hundreds of farmers in the worst 

 times of the agricultural depression paid their rents 

 from the produce of pedigree mares working on their 

 farms. Since then the demand has risen by leaps and 

 bounds, and the value of the animals has steadily 

 increased. In no long time the prices must fall, 



