Notes on Cart Horses. 
313 
The report is as follows : 
" Respecting cart-horses, as to their having much hair on 
their legs or not, I am of opinion that the most serviceable and 
best class of horse is the one that has plenty of good, flat bone, 
and a fair amount of soft, silky hair. I find that horses that 
grow a quantity of rough, coarse hair — especially in abundance 
round the fetlock joint and in many cases hanging over the 
hoof — ^are more predisposed to disease, such as itching of the 
legs, rough legs, grease, &c. No doubt this arises in some 
measure from the inability to thoroughly cleanse the legs from 
dirt, &c., and also I consider these horses are more constitu- 
tionally predisposed to these diseases." 
With a view to stimulate the growth of hair, it is not an 
uncommon practice with Shire-horse breeders to use a little 
common blister-ointment, with a plentiful supply of sheep-oint- 
ment, well rubbed in on the back of the legs ; the same treatment 
is adopted for preventing the hair from shedding in the summer. 
I would submit to the consideration of breeders that, looking 
to the fact of fashion having changed more than once during 
the past forty years, and in view of the possibility of another 
turn in popular taste, whether it may not be advisable to aim 
at producing the most powerful horse, as free as possible from 
the objection so forcibly pointed out by the two Railway 
jManagers, instead of running in the opposite direction and 
endeavouring to load the legs of the horses of the future with 
a still greater profusion of hair. 
Size. 
A few words with respect to Size. Farmers in hill countries, 
and many users of draught-horses in towns and cities, require 
for their purposes a compact horse, not exceeding sixteen 
hands. Probably a time will arrive when this class of horse 
will be established as a separate breed, in the same way as the 
white pigs have been divided into large breed and small breed. 
At all events, this is a kind of horse worthy the encourage- 
ment of Agricultural Societies ; for, independently of the home 
customer, a great demand exists which English breeders fail 
to meet. Immense numbers of the French Percheron breed 
are bought by foreigners, because our English horses are too 
ponderous for their requirements. I am quite aware that if an 
English Shire-horse breeder be spoken to on the subject, his 
reply will be, " my difficulty is to breed horses of sufficient 
size. I can always sell big ones." But horses of sixteen hands, if 
wide, powerful, and with good action, are also quite as saleable. 
I wiil ngt say they are more useful or fetch quite as much 
