248 



Farming of Cumberland. 



numbers of them are bred on the moors, wtiere they for 

 themselves, winter and summer ; and are found to yield as good a 

 return as any other stock, when kept in moderate numbers on the 

 ground. They are generally taken to the great Brough-hill fair 

 in September, when the most amusing scenes may be witnessed 

 in the attempts at haltering and exhibiting the unbroken colts to 

 purchasers. 



In this county there has always been bred a considerable num- 

 ber of horses of the lighter description, and at one time stallions 

 of the Cleveland breed were much run on. These have of 

 late years very much given way to thorough-breds, the produce 

 between which and the Clydesdale mares, well selected, not un- 

 frequently turn out valuable carriage horses. The broad, and, as 

 the dealers say, " rather too useful" characteristics of the dam, 

 are however apt to manifest themselves here and there unduly, to 

 the prejudice of style and uniformity. A safer plan is to select 

 a Cleveland mare, a cross between that and Clydesdale, or between 

 the latter and blood, to put to the thorough-bred horse. Stallions 

 of proper qualities are not easily to be met with — the present 

 system of breeding too exclusively for speed having materially 

 deteriorated the form of our modern thorough-breds for country 

 use, which we now too frequently see weedy, low-shouldered, 

 narrow-made animals, approximating in some degree to the shape 

 of greyhounds. Of all the defects entire horses of this descrip- 

 tion are liable to, there is none so much to be guarded against as 

 that of roaring — a source of the greatest amount of loss and vex- 

 ation to the breeder ; and it behoves the committees of agricul- 

 tural societies to instruct the judges to pay the greatest possible 

 attention to this particular, and to thoroughly examine the horses 

 submitted to their inspection ; and should this infirmity, or any 

 other natural blemish, be detected, to reject them at once, even if 

 otherwise unexceptionable. 



A considerable number of fine horses are however annually 

 drawn out of various districts of the county for the London and 

 other markets. The principal fairs for these are Preston at 

 Christmas, Durham in March, and Newcastle in October, where 

 there is generally to be seen a large assortment of horses, and a 

 fair competition of dealers, at least for the best animals, which 

 have been of increased value since the extension of the railway 

 system, and seem likely permanently to maintain it, as, from the 

 almost extinction of coach travelling, the vent for the inferior 

 animals is greatly diminished ; and as large numbers of them are 

 necessarily produced in the attempts at the better ones, it follows 

 that the farmer must either have a higher price for the best, or 

 be discouraged from cultivating this kind of stock. 



* Provide. 



