Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding, Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. Ih 
pasture of second-rate quality, and especially where sucli is undulating, 
horses can be profitably bred. The cost of rearing a few foals is inconsider- 
" able, and thus the necessary horse-supply may be kept up in an inexpensive 
manner. When horses are bred upon the farm, they can be more profitably 
worked and with less risk when first put into the yoke. Young bought-in 
horses almost invariably do not thrive until they have been upon the farm 
for some time, and have become thoroughly accustomed to it. 
Upon mixed arable farms, where a large acreage of turnips and swedes is 
cultivated, it is certainly the most profitable course to buy yearling stirks 
late in the autumn, winter these either upon rape-cake and straw, or upon 
roots and straw, graze them in the following summer, and fatten them in the 
winter. In our district it is not so remunerative to rear calves, for the land 
is too valuable, and the cost of maintaining and rearing calves too great as 
compared with the remuneration. The general character of cows in our 
district is too mixed for breeding fattening cattle, and the cost of maintaining 
a good Shorthorn stock would be too great. 
On high-rented arable farms, as in East Lothian, where comparatively little 
land is in grass, and all the laud of good quaUty, it is most profitable not 
to breed what the holding can fatten, but to buy them in for this purjwse ; but 
upon mixed arable farms, where there is a variety of soil and some permanent 
pasture, it is the most profitable course to breed what the holding can fatten. 
Thus, also, the risk of introducing infectious and parasitic diseases among the 
sheep stock on the farm, is considerably diminished. 
Sheep are the more profitable upon farms of medium and lighter character, 
because they manure the land more evenly and at less expense. Cartage and 
other expenses are considerably reduced. Sheep, on the whole, are also more 
remunerative. But upon heavy clay farms, where sheep cannot be easily fat- 
tened upon the land without injuring the mechanical condition of the soil for 
the succeeding grain-crops, cattle would certainly be the more profitable. 
The most profitable farm-horse, generally speaking, is the pure-bred Clydes- 
dale, but a cross between the Clydesdale and Cleveland forms a very useful 
breed of horses upon the lighter farms of our district. 
The best breeds are pure-bred Shorthorn cattle and pure-bred Border 
Leicester sheep ; but upon the more elevated farms in our district, a second 
cross of the Cheviot ewe, with a pure-bred Border Leicester ram forms a very 
hardy and useful sheep. 
Geokge p. Smith. 
69. DiPPLE, FOOHABBES, MOEATSHIEE, N.B. 
I am of opinion that it is quite impossible to breed horses other than agri- 
cultural with profit in this county. One reason is that the soil is too hard and 
stony for the animals' feet, and being of a very fattening nature, adds mate- 
rially to the danger, as the animal frequently carries more weight of carcase 
than the legs can support. The soil, combined with our fine climate, tells 
considerably in favour of producing beef and mutton as against horse-breeding. 
Another reason is the want of suitable stallions to put to mares which might 
otherwise leave a good foal, but, in common reason, cannot be expected to 
leave a sound one when the sire is only relegated to the duty of serving mares 
when he is too unsound for any other purpose. I am strongly of opinion that 
in breeding horses, as well as all other kinds of stock, we should have at 
least a pure-bred sire, and he a sound one ; and that no mongrel can, generally 
speaking, produce stock that will be profitable to the breeder. I think every 
farmer with ordinary facilities ought to breed the horses necessary for his own 
farm, if only for the simple reason that horses bred on a farm arc invariably 
