510 
Waste Hill Lands, §r. 
nature and being better done, should throw larger stock with 
some quality. As I have said, they would never take their 
chance on the hill, as their mothers did, through the winter ; 
but they should get more shelter and better pasture, and 
when their stock came into the market, good prices may be 
anticipated. Beyond that cross I should not be inclined to go, 
as far as mares are concerned ; but I would sell off every- 
thing, and let those inclined to breed from their produce do it 
in more favourable localities. I am aware that in advocating 
such an experiment as this I am going contrary to many argu- 
ments that have been advanced ; and Mi". Sidney, in his ' Book 
of the Horse,' says, that where it pays to breed more than the 
mountain pony, it would pay to breed a still bigger horse, 
or words to that effect. To these conclusions 1 altogether 
demur, as three horses with the mountain blood in their veins, 
between 14 and 15 hands, would live and grow fat, where two 
16-hands horses would starve ; and when we look at the 
demand for this especial class of animal it appears almost 
certain that in the right hands such a speculation must prove 
remunerative. That it has failed is, I believe, due to the 
endeavour to mix up hunter-breeding or larger horses with the 
pony-breeding in a locality quite unsuitable to the former, and 
the one has had to bear the sins of the other. Neither is there 
any guarantee that the men who tried it were likely persons to 
carry it to a successful issue ; and, above all, ponies and cobs a 
few years ago did not represent half the value that they do at 
present. In such a case as I suppose, with an energetic man, a 
croft here and there would be added to the arable land in favour- 
able localities, so as to increase the supply of hay and oats at 
command, and by the time the mares of the first cross came 
to foal, considerable improvements would have been effected. 
Although the horse-stock would be the principal, a few rough 
bullocks would from time to time be brought in to tear out 
what the horses did not eat, and to clear up behind them. It 
would be also advisable occasionally to clear certain enclosures 
entirely of the ponies and depasture them with sheep, a% it is 
a well-known fact that after a certain time the land becomes 
tainted by feeding with one kind of stock, and when that is the 
case they will never do well. But whatever is put on the land, 
it must not be over-done, but had better keep a less quantity 
well than a larger one badly. The necessity of providing 
hay, (Sec, for winter emergencies is so obvious, that 1 have not 
touched on it. 
I would never have the mares worked at all, or even shod, 
because I am convinced that we should breed sounder stock from 
unworked mares. Look what sound animals "Lecturer" and 
