4 
Half-bred  Horses  for  Field  or  Road : 
Let  us  return  for  a moment  to  Mr.  Francis  Lawley  and  his 
special  report  on  Kilburn  in  1879. 
Mr.  Francis  Lawley  * is  a Yorkshireman  of  great  natural 
ability  and  high  cultivation.  He  has  great  and  varied  experi- 
ence in  this  and  other  countries ; and  by  birth,  inheritance,  edu- 
cation and  taste,  he  is,  in  the  largest  sense  of  the  word,  a con- 
summate horseman.  As  I understand  him,  in  writing  of  the 
“ equine  aristocracy  ” he  implies  that  many  notable  breeders  are 
opposed  to  exhibition.  Costly  shows  must  be  arranged  to 
attract  the  “splendid  shilling”:  horses  are  always  popular, 
and  attract  not  an  agricultural  public  only,  but  everybody.  Our 
American  cousins,  who  have  beaten  us  in  trotters,  run  us  hard 
with  thoroughbreds  : query,  should  the  Society  not  encourage 
and  cultivate  trotting  qualities?  London  carriage-horses  are 
now  foreigners.  The  Royal  Society  should  formulate  points, 
and  not  leave  all  to  the  Judges:  a standard  is  wanted;  and, 
moreover,  the  tendencies  of  various  strains  should  be  studied. 
Reference  is  then  made  to  the  revival  of  coaching  ; but  coaching 
stallions  are  no  longer  of  the  Cleveland  type.  More,  Mr. 
Lawley  thinks,  might  be  done  by  the  Royal  Agricultural 
Society  to  teach  farmers  how  to  utilise  their  half-bred  mares. 
The  really  practical  question  is,  how  to  raise  hunters  worth  at 
4 years  old  from  1007.  to  1507.,  the  consideration  being  the  cost, 
the  market,  and  the  ruinous  fees  charged  for  service.  Enduring 
hacks  of  the  old  sort  are  now  only  to  be  found  in  very  few 
hands — wheels  being  everywhere  preferred : very  different  from 
the  good  old  time  when  men  rode  and  did  not  rail  ! The  fancy 
type  in  an  equine  prize  list  should  be  excluded  in  favour  of  a 
valuable  coaching  or,  rather,  omnibus  type  of  horse.  The  crying 
evil  is,  professional  exhibitors  going  the  rounds  with  veteran 
champions — stallions  that  never  get  a hunter,  or  hunters  that 
were  never  hunted. 
The  Royal  Agricultural  Society  has  just  received  from  the 
French  Ministry  of  Agriculture  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Manage- 
ment of  the  French  IVa-tional  Studs. f Few  people  really  grasp 
the  idea,  but  steam  and  railways  have  had  an  extraordinary 
effect  in  breaking  down  the  barriers  of  .ages,  and  in  promoting 
free  association,  all  tending  to  the  almost  sudden  geographical 
* “ Report  upon  the  Exhibition  of  Horses  at  Kilburn.”  By  tho  Honourable 
Francis  Lawley.  Journal  Roy.  Agri.  Soe.,  vol.  xv.,  New  Series,  1879.  The  reader 
should  consult  the  text,  of  which  the  above  is  only  an  unworthy  precis.  I should 
mention  tho  Highland  Society  lias  had  a recent  paper  on  “ Breeding  and  Rearing 
Horses  for  Farm,  Road,  or  Field.”  By  W.  T.  Paterson.  Trans.  Highland  and 
Agricultural  Soc.,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  xiv.,  1882.  It  is  only  a short  paper  of  7 or  8 
pages.  Hunter-breeding  in  Scotland  rather  deprecated.  Mentions  Mr.  Wilson, 
of  Kendal,  as  breeding  from  the  thoroughbred  mare  and  Norfolk  horse. — C. 
f 1 Ministerc  do  1'Agriculturo,  Direction  des  Haras,  Bulletin.’  Paris,  1882, 
which  see. 
