The Horse-Breedikg Commission of igoo-i 



In October, 1900, a Commission met at Umballa to 

 enquire into the question of Indian Horse-Breeding. The 

 members visited at the Remount Depots, the Government 

 farm at Hessar, and toured through the principal horse- 

 breeding districts ; they inspected over 10,000 horses, mules- 

 and donkeys, including nearly all the State stallions and many 

 branded mares, and they took evidence from numerous civil 

 and military officers, native chiefs and European and native 

 breeders and dealers. 



In their exceedingly interesting and instructive report, the 

 Commissioners pointed out all the shortcomings of the 

 " Diffused System " to which reference has been made in the 

 foregoing pages, and indicated others not less important- 

 They stated that the method of distributing stallions was open 

 to objection, inasmuch as horses were kept standing in districts 

 where there is little horse-breeding or none, while in districts 

 where horses are bred there was grave lack of staUions ; that 

 imported stallions were practically forced upon the native 

 breeders in regions where strong and, as the Commissioners 

 admit, well-founded objections existed to their use ; that the 

 Thoroughbred stallions, English and Australian, are used 

 without care being used to ascertain whether they nick well 

 with the mares of any given district ; and that, in a word, the 

 Diffused System was a costly failure. 



The Commissioners, after reviewing the whole matter at 

 considerable length, arrive at the conclusion that want of 

 supervision and method chiefly accounts for this failure, and 

 offer recommendations for the reorganisation of the whole 

 system, with a view to establishing " a breed of Indian horses 

 duly registered and branded." 



It must be confessed that the recommendations of the 

 Commissioners were not what the evidence they collected 



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