56 
Relative Profits to the Farmer from 
not get a price for them till they are made and aged, and all the profit goes ta 
the dealers and not the breeders. Sixty pounds lor a colt four years old will 
not pay the farmer, and that is above the average price for hunting-colts of 
that age, as many of them turn unsound and go cheap as hacks and farmers'^ 
horses. If the farmers or their sons, who are hunting men, valued the time 
when they make a horse to sell for hounds, and deduct all the screws they 
make, there would be very little to the right side of the farm account. 
Breeding hunters is only for gentlemen who have time and means for 
hunting. 
On tillage lands, where a regular system of cropping is carried out, sheep 
pay most money, as a pound of mutton is as easy made as a pound of beef, 
and the wool is. extra ; and, moreover, they manure and tread light land better 
than cattle : but on old grass-land, sheep, when heavily stocked, destroy the 
quality of pastures by keeping the fine grasses down and letting the coarse 
grasses get up. On this land cattle pay best ; and on heavy clay lands, when 
sheep cannot be fed on the turnips, cattle pay best, but on all well-managed' 
farms a mixed stock should be kept. 
I have known several farmers to give up breeding hunting horses and put 
on cattle or sheep, but I never knew a farmer quit breeding working horses when' 
he did it right. I have known gentlemen of indei^endent means turn to horse- 
breeding, but I never heard them say, after a fair trial, it paid well. I have- 
known several farmers give up sheep-breeding and turn to cattle ; some of 
them did so with profit, as the lands were unhealthy for sheep, and I have 
known some turn altogether to sheei^farming, but many of them again 
returned to the mixed stock system with profit to themselves. It is a great 
failing of Irish farmers to run from one thing to another as the prices change- 
by the over-supply of some particular stock. One year they will have all 
bullocks, another heifers, and another ewes, and again wethers, so that the 
man who sticks to a steady mixed system always has a good market for some 
of his produce. 
The breed of agricultural stock must be regulated by the climate, soil, and 
general aspect of the farm, also the market to be supplied. In Queen's County 
a cross of the Clj'desdale horse on our mares makes the best agricultural horse ; 
and the Shorthorn bull on our cows, and the Lincoln or Border Leicester rams 
on the ewes of the districts. On the heavy grass lands the Lincoln cross is- 
best, and on very light soils the Border Leicester. 
Wm. Davidson. 
42. Chambers of Highland and Agricultural Societt, 
Edinburgh. 
I am of opinion that many fanners could breed stock much more extensively ; 
but so much depends on the nature of the farm they possess that it is diEBculfc 
to say what proportion of the farming community would profit themselves by 
so doing. 
On a farm v/hich has no natural pasture, on which young horses can be 
grazed at a cheap rate, I do not think horses can be reared profitably.. 
Also when there is constant work for the whole of the horses, such as carry- 
ing grain, hay, and straw to market, fetching back manvu-e from towns, &c., 
the loss of the mare's work while rearing the foal would be inconvenient. If^ 
on the other hand, there is a rough hillside attached to the farm, I would' 
advise breeding horses as largely as possible, consistent with keeping the work 
going without spoiling the brood-mares. 
If a fa/m is suitable to breeding cattle as well as feeding, I have no doubt 
that it would be more profitable to breed, rear, and feed-off on the same farm>. 
