324 GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. [March 189:5. 



country, competition from that source is not likely to be for- 

 midable, at all events, for some time. 



Horse-Breeding in Australia. 



A recent number of the oflScial Agricultural Gazette of New- 

 South Wales contains a letter relating to horse-breeding in Aus- 

 tralia, addressed by Major- General E, T. H. Hutton, C.B., com- 

 manding the military forces, to the Minister of Mines and 

 Agriculture of the Colony. 



General Hutton states that it is the opinion of many leading 

 authorities, as well as of himself, that sufficient attention is not 

 being paid in Australia to the breeding of horses for domestic 

 purposes, and that the quality of such horses is in consequence 

 gradually deteriorating, There can be no question, he adds, 

 that a very important industry in New South Wales and in the 

 other Australian Colonies is seriously threatened, and the export 

 trade in hoises, which should be a specialty of Australia, is 

 likely to grow^ less and less every year, more especially as the 

 Indian Government are now beginning to breed large numbers 

 of horses for the use of the Indian army. 



As regards other markets for the sale of Australian horses. 

 General Hutton refers to the great and increasing trade in 

 horses for military purposes which now obtains in Europe, and 

 observes that, if horse-breeders will give the matter attention, 

 the class of horses existing in Australia should not only become 

 a source of wealth to Australia, but should also directlv benefit 

 the country by encouraging a pastoral industry of great value. 



The facilities of shipment to Europe yearly become greater 

 and simpler, so that horse-breeders in Australia should, it is 

 maintained, be able to command the European horse-market in 

 preference to South A ni erica. North America, Syria, and North 

 Africa. The horses of the two former countries have not, it 

 appears, the blood or the fine qualities of the Australian horse 

 at his best, while the horses of Syria and North Africa are small 

 and too slow for military purposes, or even for general domestic 

 use. 



General Hutton suggests that the New South Wales Govern- 

 ment, in concurrence with the other Australian Governments, 

 should put a tax on stallions so as to restrict the breeding from 

 weakl}^ useless sires, and that the Indian Government and the 

 Imperia! Government should be approached with the view to the 

 establishment of a Remount Purchasing Agency in New South 

 Wales, to be presided over by a carefully selected Imperial officer 

 of experience. Such an aoency would, it is thought, at once create 

 a market, and establish the requisite standard which Australian 

 breeders should endeavour to reach in order to command the 

 military horse-market of Europe. This system would speedily 

 develop the European horse trade throughout Australia, the 



