514 Report on the Exhibition of Live Stock at Manchester. 
to have contained many mares suitable for breeding hunters up 
to more than a light weight. Those of them that appeared well- 
bred seemed deficient in size, frame, and bone, and it is a serious 
question whether the number of mares in the country suitable 
for breeding hunters up to anything like 14 stones is not 
steadily diminishing. The offer of a handsome prize for mares 
calculated to breed heavy-weight hunters might be advan- 
tageous. 
A letter in the 'Times,' of June 1st of this year, to Lord 
Zetland from the Speaker, than whom no one is better qualified 
to give an opinion on the subject, invites the attention of the 
public to the present condition of horse-breeding through the 
country, so far as it refers to half-bred stock for the road and the 
hunting-field. After imputing the depression of the business 
of breeding to the invention of railways, which have caused 
•thousands of farmers to lay aside their riding-horses, the Speaker 
adds — " Can anything be done to revive and stimulate this de- 
clining interest? The means, to be successful, must be simple. 
We must operate through the farmers. Tlie effort should be a 
combined effort of proprietors and occupiers. If gentlemen 
interested in the subject would meet together, and would form 
an association, and would agree, each of them, to place two or 
three good mares in the hands of tenants on their estates, in a 
few years a great change would be effected, and the foundation 
Avould be laid of a supply of useful and valuable horses." 
Without expressing an opinion as to the suggestion of an 
association, which, however, if it could once be set on foot, would 
certainly give a start and an impetus in the right direction, there 
can be little doubt that it is the want of mares of a good stamp 
that is operating adversely to the breed of a certain class of 
horses in the country. Much care is taken, and expense gone to, 
by farmers and others in seeking out a good sire, while no 
corresponding attention is paid to the quality of the mares 
sent to him. 
Besides the introduction of railways operating adversely 
upon the horse-breeding business, it is certain that a formidable 
cause of deterioration in the trade exists in the very exten- 
sive exportation of mares, Avhich Is going on throughout the 
country. From the concurrent testimony of many of the largest 
wholesale dealers in London and elsewhere, it is shown that 
the principal breeding districts of the country are ransacked by 
foreign commissioners, who are on the look-out especially for all 
the young useful mares they can find. This not only reduces 
the actual number of mares to breed from but encourages farmers 
to aim at no higher standard than the production of young horses 
that will satisfy the foreign demand. 
