/ 



produce mares of the type and usefulness attained 

 fifty or one hundred years ago. 



Every farmer who possesses a mare, whether 

 well or ill-shaped, sound or lame, thinks her good 

 enough to breed from. I should say, on the contrary, 

 do not breed from the old mare becaitse she is an old 

 mare, but select a sizeable and suitable two- or three- 

 year-old filly, and the produce from her will repay 

 you for its keep. 



On this point Mr. Lumley Hodgson, in com- 

 ' menting on Lord Cathcart's article, says : — 



" Concerning mares generally we breed from the 

 refuse, the worn-out and worthless. 



"On many small holdings, now consolidated, 

 small farmers worked useful mares and bred valuable 

 foals. 



"We have lost the old useful short-legged 

 Suffolk Punch, which could ride, drive, plough, cart, 

 or breed a hunter. 



"A thoroughbred horse can get a general purpose 

 horse from an active cart mare — you must have one 

 with quality, a good game head, silky mane, good 

 sloping shoulders, good action ; but do bear this in 

 mind, you must have game and mettle in the mare. 

 A sluggish, coarse, heavy mare, will assuredly breed 

 a slug. The old-fashioned and unhappily virtually 

 extinct Cleveland could ride, hunt, plough, and, to 

 a short-legged thoroughbred horse, breed the best of 



hunters." 



It is well known that in the breeding of every 



