47 A 
THE PEDIGREE OF THE HORSE. 
TURNING HORSES OUT TO GRASS. 
To the Editor of the Times. 
Sir, — For the information of those who are yet undecided 
on the point, may I ask the favour of your giving publicity 
to an opinion, based on long practical experience, tending to 
a directly contrary conclusion to that of Mr. Cartledge, of 
Sheffield? I have kept horses all my life, and not being a 
rich man, have always found it convenient to summer my 
hunters at grass, and to rest and freshen up my hacks in the 
same manner, giving for the last six weeks while in the field 
a feed of split beans daily, and I have invariably found within 
a few weeks after getting their coats off the animals are quite 
fit to go and wonderfully freshened and improved by the 
summer’s run, the flesh very soon becoming hard and well- 
conditioned, and with no perceptible injury from the flies, 
hot sun, or other imaginary dangers suggested by your 
correspondent. 
I am fully persuaded, too, that horses are much more 
liable to be injured in their wind when confined in a shed or 
box without exercise and liberally fed on oats, Indian 
corn, bran, hay, and chaff/’ than when roaming at pleasure, 
treading in the late and early dews, and feeding on the suc- 
culent grasses provided by nature — plenty of shade and 
good water being, of course, a sine qua non under the system 
I advocate. 
Yours faithfully, 
F. Bullock Webster. 
Binfield Court, Berkshire, May 18. 
THE PEDIGREE OP THE HORSE. 
A remarkable lecture was recently given at the Royal 
Institution by Professor Huxley on the “ Pedigree of the 
Horse.” A very large and distinguished audience listened 
to this exposition. The professor opened his lecture by some 
observations on the Darwin theory, remarking that the prin- 
ciple of natural selection, though it was a repressed doctrine 
ten years ago, had now established itself, and was rapidly 
making way, and in future would be known as one of the 
greatest discoveries of the nineteenth century. Coming to 
the animal in question, Professor Huxley observed, that all 
animals and things which were very accurately and delicately 
