on a long journey; but as frequently he was an object of outward 

 sliow.'^ 



We find thus that the methods practised for the two centuries 

 preceding 1860 were very simple and effective and made very small 

 demands on extra feed and care as long as the conditions for such 

 free studs were favorable, that is, when new pasturages and fresh 

 streams of water were abundant. The good sense the farmers 

 showed those days in the selection of their stallions, and their meth- 

 ods in training and mknaging their teams and riding-horses have 

 done much to make that branch of their agricultural pursuits very 

 efficient and valuable. "With closer settlement, the fencing in of 

 the farms and the increase of the flocks and herds of cattle, the 

 facilities of the past gradually shrunk within the confines of the 

 farm and in periods of drought and scarcity there were no new pas- 

 tures to retreat to and the extra feed and water had to be supplied 

 by the farmer ; this demand has been considered extravagant ; for 

 the flocks of Merinos and Angoras were found to thrive well under 

 conditions that are unfavorable to the successful rearing of horses 

 — ^for horses frequently will not graze where other animals have 

 browsed before — and owing to the loss of the Indian market for the 

 usual supply of remounts and the comparatively more lucrative 

 occupation of wool :sheep farming the horse-breeding industry was 

 gradually being shifted on the back shelf. 



This preference of other branches of pastoral farming at the 

 ' expense of another, has been one of the most serious causes of the 

 deterioration of the Cape horse. 



Many hints and good advice have been given by the Government 

 and eminent breeders and expert horsemen ; but the stone was roll- 

 ing and the Cape horse so efficient before this period and on which 

 so much care and pride was bestowed in the past was left to work 

 out his own salvation. In a few localities, here and there in the 

 Colony as well as in the neighboring independencies, luckily, the 

 standard of the previous decades was kept up and there is still 

 good hope to have the number of good horses as plentiful, propor- 

 tionately, as the number of good Merino sheep and valuable pedi- 

 gree ostriches or Angoras. 



With the advent of a new era in matters of agriculture, new 

 machinery, new methods and new ideas, the order of things needs 

 (13) William 'Burchell, "Travels in Southern Africa. 182$." 



69 



