8 HORSE-BREEDING FOR FARMERS CHAP. 
than in any other branch of stock-rearing, if they 
pursue it with intelligence, care, and perseverance. 
If we consult the returns of the Board of Agri- 
culture, it will be seen that each year shows a 
tendency towards increase in the number of horses 
imported to this country. Thousands of good 
serviceable foreign horses are sold in England 
annually. An idea of the number thus sold will 
be gained from the following figures :-— 
No. of horses 
imported. 
1841 F Z F 4 ‘ ‘ 339 
1851 ‘ A F P j , 3,443 
1861. 4 . ; 1,595 
1871 : 3 , F 7 3,448 
1881. : : 3 a - 9,950 
1891 ; ‘ , ‘ 3 5 217 1S 
1892. : 3 é - 21,026 
The great majority of carriage horses to-day are 
foreigners, nearly all the omnibus and tram- horses 
are from abroad, and many hundreds of trappers, 
vanners, cart horses, trolly horses, cab horses, etc., are 
brought from the Continent to supply the enormous 
and ever-increasing demand in our large towns and 
great centres of industry. Even the Queen’s stables 
are full of horses from Oldenburg and other horse- 
breeding districts of Germany and Prussia, and the 
majority of the high-priced horses seen in the London 
season in the carriages in Hyde Park are foreign 
importations. Is it not time to put the question— 
How is it that we leave it to the Frenchman, the 
German, the American, the Belgian, and the Dutch- 
man to supply our Queen, our nobility and gentry, 
our brewers, millers, tradesmen, and the millions who 
