86 
of all live stock in Ireland, it was proposed 
to send over selected stallions, thoroughbred 
and roadster, for the use of owners of mares 
in the horse-breeding districts. There was 
much diversity of opinion on the propriety 
of establishing hackney sires in a country so 
famed for its hunters, and the principal 
object of the Commission was to take the 
opinions of experts on the proposed step. 
While the majority of witnesses were 
averse from the introduction of the hackney 
sire, on the ground that the happy-go-lucky 
methods of the small Irish farmer would 
lead to intermingling of blood to the ultimate 
deterioration of the Irish hunter, it was 
generally acknowledged that the bone and 
substance of the hackney was eminently 
desirable in many districts to improve the 
character of the local stock. 
Could a workable system of mare regis- 
tration have been devised to prevent hunter 
mares being sent to hackney sires in those 
counties where hunter-breeding is a valuable 
industry, there can be no doubt that the 
introduction of such sires would lay the 
foundation in Ireland of the breed of high 
class harness-horses in which Britain is so 
singularly deficient, and which could be pro- 
duced in Ireland with as much, if not greater, 
