418 THE HORSE 



and in addition a small amount for the Household Cavalry. 

 It will be seen, therefore, that the number required cannot 

 possibly be an inducement for many breeders to take up the 

 industry of breeding troopers. Under present conditions 

 the only horses that will probably pay for breeding in the 

 future in the British Isles are hunters, race-horses, polo- 

 ponies, and agricultural horses, and the misfits from these 

 will be more than sufficient to supply the wants of the Army 

 in times of peace. Of these breeds hunters will probably 

 very sensibly decline each year, for recent legislation is so 

 crippling the landlords, and tenants, that those who are in a 

 position to keep hunters are likely to become less and less so ; 

 and hunting will further droop through lack of subscriptions 

 to the Hunt funds from the same cause. Small holdings, 

 and barbed wire, are alike inimical to hunting. The former 

 because of the tendency to reprisals when foxes take toll of 

 poultry, or damage is sustained through the Hunt crossing 

 the holding, which cannot always be duly compensated — 

 especially if funds are scarce ; and the latter because it is 

 cheap and handy. As the small-holder invariably cuts down 

 all his trees as soon as he comes into possession, he has no 

 supply of wood to mend his gaps, while he no longer has 

 a landlord to fall back upon to supply his minor wants. 

 Although the small-holders will probably soon disappear, 

 hunting and shooting may in the meantime have so 

 dwindled that it may be almost impossible to resuscitate them 

 again. What has happened in the past will take place in 

 the future. Under Free Trade no small-holder who has to 

 make his living out of an ordinary agricultural holding can 

 maintain himself during a cycle of bad seasons, and he is bound 

 to go to the wall. In addition those who buy their holdings 

 have to borrow the money to do so, and when the inevitable 

 death occurs of the head of the family the crushing Death 

 Duties will have to be paid, that are sapping the life-blood 

 of England, and the lately purchased holding will again be 

 thrown into the market, to meet the demands of the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer. All these changes must militate 

 against the continuance of hunting, and hunter-breeding will 

 suffer in consequence of the lack of demand for hunters. 



