THE BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND HACKS. 183 



THE BREEDING OF HUNTERS 

 AND HACKS. 



In a national point of view the g'ood policy of calling" 

 more attention to this subject cannot for a moment be 

 questioned, while the duty of doing so comes quite as 

 legitimately within the scope of an agricultural association. 

 All the rest of the world is even more inclined than ever 

 to turn to us for their best horses, as for their best cattle 

 or sheep. There is, in fact, no breed of animal that com- 

 mands so ready a market as a good riding-horse ; and yet, 

 strange to say, there is no other branch of business so 

 fortuitously supplied. Saving in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, 

 and prrts of ^^ the Shires," the breeding of horses is mere 

 chanc3-work ; and the very gentlemen of the district, 

 when they are in want of a promising* hunter or clever 

 hack, have but too often to import him from elsewhere. 

 The mere rumour, indeed, of a smartish four-year-old will 

 bring Mr. Oldacre or Mr. Weston some two or three 

 hundred miles specially to look at him ; and dealers and 

 tLeir agents now attend our great summer shows almost 

 as regularly as they do the autumn fairs, just for a glance 

 over the hunting classes, already so attractive a feature in 

 :he proceedings. 



And yet farmers will tell jou that, as a rule, breeding 

 ^' nags " does not pay ; as, under the circumstances, it 

 would be rather a ciuious thing if it did. As a rule, 



