Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. 49 
cumstances cannot be counted at less than from 201. to 25?. When risk, 
number that turn up unsound, accidents, and cost of rearing are taken into 
account, it is not strange to find that a steady profit off cattle and sheep 
and the buying-in of the horse stock as required are preferred to breeding 
horses. 
If the mares are worked, as they may be, the number that miss, pick-foal, 
&c., unless treated with the greatest care and attention, is a great drawback. 
It also, unless under the owner's direct supervision, gives such an opportunity 
for idling and letting the work hang behind, that where there is a regular staff, 
And full work to be got through, the buying of the horse stock is generally 
preferred to the breeding. 
On large farms, where the attention bestowed on the horse stock is such as 
to secure the proper working and management of mares in-foal, and where 
there is a considerable break of young grasses, one and two years old, it is an 
advantage to have some horses to nip the seed stalk, and on such farms it 
pays fairly to breed. And the same may be said of farms that have any 
rough grass about their swampy and wet parts, that would rot sheep, and that 
young stock would not eat. Oq this latter class, a few idle brood-mares may 
not pay badly, as they do well on this sort of fare, which is such as cannot 
well otherwise be profitably consumed. 
In all cases where the greater proportion of the farm is in good natural 
grass — good enough to fatten or carry dairy cows — it is considered better to buy 
stock than breed. Dairying is, of course, breeding ; but, as carried out in 
this country, the whole resources of the farm are devoted to the production of 
butter. The calves reared are sold in September, and the " Strippers " every 
March. Stock to keep up the dairy are bought as three-year-old heifers on the 
point of calving, ready to go into the dairy in March, April and May. 
In all cases where the grass is too strong or rich to carry lambs, it is better 
to buy feeding-sheep. It is a common thing in this country to find land that 
will fatten sheep well when aged, but that -will not do for lambs or young 
sheep at all. Generally a mixed stock of catt'e and sheep pays best. 
The great producer of hunters, harness-horses, hacks, and cavalry-remounts, 
was the Irish small tillage farmer (that is, the farmer whose holding was too 
large to be worked by himself and family, and too small to give work for a 
pair of horses). Such men almost always kept a mare and bred from her, 
and having a natural taste for a bit of blood, put her to a thoroughbred 
horse. The produce was sold at from one and a half to three years old, accord- 
ing to circumstances. 
For a long period the British cavalry was thus supplied with horses, the 
best in the world, for about 18Z. each to the farmer, and at but 2ol. to the 
■Government ; and such was the supply that, for a few pounds extra, a pick 
•of hundreds could be had. This gave dealers colts, the making of hunters, 
such as cannot now be had at less than from 80?. to 150?. each. The 
low price of corn following the potato failure upset all this, and these lands 
Are now in larger holdings, and turned to dairying and the rearing of store 
stock. 
Of course, the rearing of colts at the former rates could not pay, and was 
only an adjunct to the system under which the country was worked. On 
such a farm, a colt was easier kept than a few sheep, or a store-beast or two. 
He fed about the back of fences, did well on a few rubbish-potatoes boiled, 
picked among the thrashed straw, and consumed the tail-corn, and, in fact, 
.cost little in direct outlay to rear ; whereas now, if let at large on a bit of 
grass, he will eat more than the best milch-cow. He will also select the 
sweetest of the pasture, and nip close, being a most partial grazier when left 
At large with plenty to select from. 
Until the past few years, the breeding of agricultural horses for sale did 
VOL. xir. — S. S. E 
