70 The Evolution of AjricuUural Implements. 
this pressure the banded hay issues like a sausage from a 
sausage-machine. When a yard of the compressed material 
protrudes, the machine is stopped and the bale wired. Each 
bale weighs two hundredweight, and its density can be made to 
vary from 12 to 25 lb. per cubic foot. 
A number of excellent hand-power hay-presses are now 
made in this country, notably by Barford and Perkins, which 
are more useful for the purposes of the tenant farmer than larger 
machines. A full description of these is given in the Report 
on the trials of hay and straw presses at Nottingham, which 
appeared in the Journal, Vol. XXIV., second series, 1888. 
Dax. Pidgeon. 
HORSE-BREEDING FOR PROFIT. 
The number of horses imported every year into this country 
(in 1890 * the number was 19,286) has long caused the question 
to be asked. Why are not more horses produced at home ? 
To those who, like myself, have lived all their lives in a horse- 
breeding district, where farmers breed horses for a profit with 
certainty, the reply that comes to their lips is, that farmers 
in many districts are wanting in enterprise and are not suffi- 
ciently alive to their own interests. But the agriculturist is 
hardly to be blamed because he hesitates before trying his hand 
at an experiment which, if it fails, is a costly one, or because 
he prefers to stick to those branches of his industry which he 
understands. I shall endeavour to show why the breeding of 
horses in my own district of Cleveland, and in the North Riding 
of Yorkshire, pays so well, also what classes of horses promise a 
safe and sure pecuniary reward to the British farmer, in the hope 
of assisting those who have for years been doing so much to 
encourage the cultivation of the various breeds of horses at 
home. 
I should premise that I do not propose in this paper to 
dwell on the breeding of the most fashionable pedigree stock 
of any breeds ; these fine specimens of Stud Book breeds have 
their markets, and command enormous prices, but their success- 
ful production will be always more or less limited to large or 
wealthy breeders. The possibility of commanding those fancy 
' The yearly average of imports for the five years 1866-70 was 1,785, 
value 45,369/.} for the five years, 1886-90, it was 13,458, value 238,699/, 
