72 
llurse-hreedin'j fur Frofii. 
wel], for the demand is universal and continuous. The farmer 
who has young cart-stock to sell can always find a customer. 
If the horse is a big heavy one that will “ pull,” the railway com- 
j)anies, the brewers, millers, and carriers will buy greedily, and 
the possessor of such a horse can command a price of from 65L 
to 100^. If the horse does not quite come up to the big stand- 
ard, there are plenty of customers at a price of from 45L to COL 
With either of these horses there is a large margin of profit : 
the horse should not cost the farmer more than 25L at most to 
rear, for at two years old he should be able to begin to contribute 
to his own living. His dam, of course, must be a sound, active, 
willing mare, clear of side-bone and hereditary unsoundness, 
and she would do her full work practically up to the day of 
foaling, only being kept clear of the shafts and heavy loads for 
a month or two previous to that event. A man who had a pair of 
such mares, and took care to mate them with sound active Shire 
stallions, would be as sure of a profit as it is possible for a man 
to be of anything. Half, and more than half, the want of success 
in all departments of horse-breeding is the lack of enterprise in 
selecting the sire. Nothing is so foolish, so wasteful, and so 
extravagant as the attempt to save 10s. or IZ. by choosing an 
inferior sire at a lower fee. Yet how often we see it done, and 
the sound, hard, wear-and-tear stallion with a known reputation 
is given the “go by ” for the first cheap horse that passes the 
farm. If you find a horse that “ nicks ” well with your mare, 
and know that his stock is sound, active, and enduring, it is 
Avorth Avhile going to both expense and trouble in order to 
secure his services. For the possession of a reputation for 
breeding enduring, sound, and actives, cart-horses carries with it 
the command of the top price in the market. In the North 
Hiding there is always a good demand for little, “ stiff,” wide 
cart-horses for the mines, so that should a man possess an 
undersized one he can often get as good a price as he could were 
it several inches higher at the shoulder. 
There is a breed which is not popular in the north, and of 
which I know nothing from practical exiierience — the Suffolk — 
Avhich, if they were as good as they have often appeared to me 
to be in show rings, I cannot help thinking would be invaluable 
to the farmer horse-breeder. If their tendency to bad feet 
could be bred out, I feel convinced that a well-made, active, 
Suffolk mare would, whilst earning her own livelihood on the 
farm, be able to produce good half-bred stock, and perhaps fine 
harness-horses, if crossed with the Yorkshire Coach-horse or cer- 
tain big Hackneys, as their uniformity of type and colour and 
their hairless legs eminently fit them for this purpose. Of the 
