£30.^° The breeders of reputation possessing excellent stock and 

 stallions cannot meet the demand for yearling colts which sell out 

 from £50-£100. Mares are never for sale or at least very seldom 

 and two-yearlings are as scarce. With breeders of heavier breeds 

 near the cities things are different and they sell at serviceable ages. 



South African bred Thoroughbreds generally fetch very high 

 prices. 



At the Rand Agricultural Show (Johannesburg) in April 1914, 

 the sale of several South African bred Thoroughbred two-yearlings 

 attracted great attention. Five hundred guineas was the top price 

 for a half-brother to ' ' Eiffel Tower ' ' by Sarcelle ; 500 guineas for 

 ' ' The Mede ' ' by Sarcelle ; ' ' Niobe 's" half-sister fetched 400 guineas 

 and "Blanche" and "Sir Starr" each fetched 300 guineas." 



Although these prices are high they do not reach that paid for 

 colts of great promise in the beginning of last century and are prob- 

 ably not of the same calibre, conformation and weight carrying 

 powers. The sires of that period more generally combined great 

 weight and compactness with speed than present day sires which 

 have lost many good qualities in their attainment of greater size 

 and speed. 



It is a frequent remark that tliere are sufficient horses in South 

 Africa but that their quality is not on a par with their quantity. 

 Managers of stud farms, great breeders and experts all complain of 

 "weedy" and undesirable sires and this circumstance has probably 

 driven some men who ought to know better into the belief that 

 crosses with heavy breeds will remedy matters ; but the experience 

 of the past, and of the best experts have proved the contrary. Eco- 

 nomically no other horse will give a greater amount of general 

 efficiency and usefulness than the Cape Horse — the type that is still 

 met with occasionally and represents the ideal type of palmy Han- 

 tam days. He is a native of the land with the breath of the life- 

 giving veld in his nostrils, the tenacity, health and power of the 

 virgin soil of the pastures in his hoof, bone and tendon — an equal 

 to any other equine quadruped in the world. 



During seven years (1904—11) the Orange Free State Province 

 has increased its horse stock 189.47 percent ; Natal 13.57 ; Transvaal 

 72.61 and the Cape Colony 80.93. The Orange Free State pos- 

 sesses splendid horse breeding areas and some of the material used 



(10) Farmers Weekly 1913. 



(11) Band Daily Mail 16 April, 1914. 



114 



