26 
Relative Profits to the Farmer from 
I do not think that any rule can be laid down as to whether sheep or cattle 
are the most profitable to the British and Irish farmer, as everything depends 
on the nature of the soil. Sheep will pay best on light dry soils, and cattle 
best on rich and stronger land ; it is seldom that a good cattle-farm is a good 
sheep-farm, and vice versa. 
I have myself almost given up breeding horses in favour of cattle-breeding, 
and with profitable results; the cause being the difficulty in getting good 
and sound sires, and so many of the produce being unsound (roarers, &c.). I 
used to breed a number of horses, as well as cattle. 
At the time the cattle-plague was in England, many farmers increased 
their flocks of breeding-ewes ; and I think there are more sheep now bred in 
this part of the country than there were before that time. 
The agricultural horses best adapted to this district are the Clydesdale, 
they being more active, and not quite so heavy as the Lincolnshire horses. 
The cattle best adapted to this part of the country, and also for the United 
Kingdom, as well as every other part of the globe, are Shorthorns. 
The sheep which do best are a strong class of Leicester, almost approaching 
the " refined " Lincoln. 
John B. Booth. 
14. BOLSHAU, FOBFAESHIEE, N.B. 
At present high prices, there can be no doubt, if we farmers could breed 
good horses it would pay us well to do so, where the nature of our farms 
aflbrded facilities for it ; but unfortunately those of us whose farms consist 
wholly of arable land, and who cultivate land highly, have to work our horses 
hard, and with the high feeding we must give them, the breeding results are 
seldom satisfactory. Again, we have no great choice of good stallions, and 
such as travel to serve mares get too much to do. Then, most farmers who 
are in the habit of breeding and rearing young horses, are not very particular 
as to the kind of mares they breed from, and the consequence is an inferior 
progeny. To carry out the system to make it pay, as we do with cattle, 
we should require a breeding-stud of mares to do little else, and a first-class 
entire horse, besides some rough grass land, as well as jiermanent pasture. 
But a stock of the right stamp would require a purse which few farmers 
have at their command ; and to change from rearing and feeding cattle and 
sheep to breeding horses would involve a risk that most of us would not care 
to encounter. I used to breed a few horses here, but my land being all arable 
and in regular rotation, I did not find it a profitable business for the reason 
stated. I just had two or three of the working-mares covered with travelling 
stallions, as most farmers who breed in this part of the country have, and the 
produce was so often disappointing, that I ceased some years ago to Continue 
it, believing that it was better to buy what I required than to breed for the 
farm. That was, however, when prices were much lower : lately I have 
resumed covering two or three mares as formerly ; but to do so successfully, as 
I have said, an entire horse, with a stud of breeding-mares, would have to be 
kept, and I think I am safer with cattle and sheep ; for if farmers were changing 
to horse-breeding extensively, prices would fall below the paying ymnt. 
Wm. Goodlet. 
15. DoouFouK, Inveeness, N.B. 
I think that British farmers could breed more stock tlian they now do witli 
profit to themselves. Horses, cattle, and slucp sell at very high prices, with an 
increasing demand, while prices of grain are correspondingly low. The cost 
