432 
THE NORTON FARMERS* CLUB. 
capital employed in these articles of produce alone ; and surely it is 
worth while to make this enormous sum as productive as we can. 
As foremost in rank and importance, I will commence with 
The Horse. 
The number of years which the horse occupies in coming to 
maturity, the many casualties to which he is liable, and the la- 
mentable manner in which the fond hopes of many a breeder are 
disappointed when his favourite arrives at a saleable age, have 
combined to render the breeding of horses any thing but a profit- 
able or favourite employment. The disappointments and loss of 
breeders are generally to be traced to a want of judgment and 
due consideration in themselves, rather than to the absence of re- 
munerative prices and public encouragement. Good horses, of any 
description, always have, and do still, command high and remune- 
rative prices for the risk and trouble attendant on their breeding 
and rearing ; and if breeders would only bear in mind the motto 
of that eminent man, Mr. Bake well, that “ like produces like,” 
and breed from none but sound and perfect animals, with a due 
regard to the description of horse to be produced, the world would 
no longer be filled with diseased and mongrel nondescripts, yclept 
horses, devouring daily twice the value of their earnings. 
The very diseases and infirmities of mares are not unfrequently 
the cause why they are selected to breed from. A man is pos- 
sessed of a mare incapable of earning an honest livelihood. Rest, 
or a summer’s run, is necessary, and that that may not be lost, she 
is put to the nearest horse, in order that she may have an oppor- 
tunity of handing down to posterity her own worthlessness, and 
perpetuating her owner’s misfortune in the possession of such a 
breed. False economy — foolish and fatal delusion ! the unfortu- 
nate breeder perseveres with his principle of like producing 
like” from one generation to another, until, worn out in pocket or 
in patience, he gives it up as a bad affair, and declares that there 
is no profit attending the breeding of horses. 
Another common error is in breeding from a favourite (perhaps 
a good) mare, without duly considering her qualifications as a 
brood mare, or perhaps not until the vital functions are impaired 
by a long life of previous toil. As a matter of fancy, it is all very 
well to desire to perpetuate a breed to which we are possibly 
attached by many associations ; but we should endeavour to bear 
in mind, that favourites have often an ideal value set upon them 
by their owners, and to expect to obtain a really valuable offspring 
from an undersized, worn-out, or mis-shapen dam, merely because 
