362 
Breeding of Hunters and Roadsters. 
stand how it was that Daniel O'Rourkeand Little Wonder, when 
under 1 5 hands high, beat for the Derby in their respective years 
good competitors which were a hand higher than themselves. 
We shall further see how it is that a little animal like the fox 
is able to run for two hours before animals similarly constituted 
and much larger. The same law is in operation in one case as 
in the other. 
I will conclude with a few remarks about the feet of young 
horses of different ages before being put to work. If two pieces 
of advice which I have given be carried out, the feet will not 
require much art; if the stock can have plenty of space the 
friction caused by exercise will keep the hoof in proper form, 
and the inner structure will by the same influence be duly 
developed. Besides this, if horses when brought under cover, 
stand on a dry hard bottom, the feet will acquire form and strength. 
Periodical visitations, if to wash and clean the feet, should by 
all means be adopted ; though, if the frogs are free from thrushes, 
there is no . necessity for operating on the feet. Paring the 
feet I do not think advisable. Once or twice in the winter if 
the colts cannot get room out of doors, a blunt old rasp may be 
taken to equalize the plantar surface of the feet, and a little 
lowering of the outside may be necessary, especially with narrow- 
chested colts. The greater wearing down of the inside is apt to 
twist the foot and pastern, and even tends to turn the elbow in. 
Whenever mares or foals are deranged in health, a veterinary 
surgeon should be called in earlv, as nothing prescribed by 
anticipation is likely to meet the requirement. 
New Veterinary College, Edinburgh. 
XXII. — Fire Years^ Progress of Steam Cultivation. By John 
Algerxon Clarke. 
In the twentieth volume of this Journal it was my good fortune 
to chronicle the successes of the steam-plough to the close of the 
year 1858. I have now to present a summary of mechanical 
improvements and practical results which since then have made 
steam tillage the pre-eminent triumph of modern English agri- 
culture. 
Not that certain sanguine expectations have become even ap- 
proximately realized. Analogy from the achievements of the 
steam-engine in the factory gave but fallacious promise as to its 
performances in the field. One pair of hands, with steam-power 
and a spinning-machine, might draw out and twist up a thousand 
threads at once ; but it by no means followed that a labourer, 
