198 ON THE REARING 



himself. Anything very good will, of course, 

 make more money ; but the best quality Irish 

 horses no longer appear at our horse-fairs 

 as they used to do in the palmy days of 

 Horncastle and Barnet, Weyhill and Britford. 

 They are picked out beforehand by English 

 dealers, who run over several times a year 

 for the purpose. How the second- and third- 

 class horses can be bred up, even without 

 corn, to be sold at such prices as rule in 

 an English fair field, is a thing which no 

 English breeder can understand. All he 

 knows is that it cannot be done here. Yet 

 it was once. A Devon squire and master 

 of harriers assured me lately that his father 

 always used to say : " Whenever you can get 

 £1 a month for your colt, sell him ; there 

 is fair profit in that ! " All we can say is, 

 there could not have been much corn-feeding 

 there, and probably there was no need of it. 

 Devon grass is, like Irish, plentiful, and good 

 enough in itself. Yet what pleasanter or 



