66 



to the very important services which have 

 been rendered by the Shire Horse Society. 

 This Society originated in the work of a 

 few men who desired to make an organised 

 endeavour to improve and promote the 

 breeding of the Enghsh cart horse by dis- 

 tributing sound and healthy sires through- 

 out the country. Pubhc attention was first 

 drawn to the matter in the year 1877, 

 when Mr. Frederic Street read his paper on 

 "The Shire Horse" at the Farmers' Club. 



The Society was founded in 1878 as the 

 " English Cart Horse Society," it became in 

 1884 the "Shire Horse Society": and under 

 the latter name has continued to confer on 

 tenant farmers the benefits which accrued 

 from the date of its establishment. The 

 work of the Society and the eagerness with 

 which breeders have availed themselves of 

 its labours may be seen from the nineteen 

 volumes of its Stud Book. The first volume 

 is a monument of painstaking research ; it 

 contains the pedigrees of upwards of 2,380 

 stallions, many of which were foaled in the 

 last century. These invaluable records were 

 supplied by members from almost every 

 county in England ; and their compilation 

 was a task to which Mr. R. S. Reynolds 

 devoted years. The second volume was 



