THE NORTON FARMERS’ CLUB. 
441 
and by a blood-horse. In these there is all the size and power 
that can be desired, with a lightness and smartness of step and 
carriage that no mongrel ever possesses. 
The breeding of cart-horses must, in some measure, be governed 
by their own kind of work. A farmer on sandy land may breed a 
kind of strong carriage horse; and those that are sufficiently good 
looking may be worked until six years old, and then be parted with 
to advantage. Others, too strong or not smart enough, might make 
valuable horses for porters’ carts, &c. Those who farm a stronger 
soil might breed them as near like the engraving as they can get 
them, and with such improvements as their experience can 
suggest. Let them work their colts on until six years old, and 
then they may be taken to a fair for the London dealers, and sold 
readily at their own price. By pursuing the rules I have thus 
laid down, I feel satisfied that the breeding of horses would no 
longer be considered the unsatisfactory and unprofitable employ- 
ment which it is now considered to be by most farmers, in this 
neighbourhood at least. 
In continuation, Mr. Hinde observed, that he had not alluded 
particularly to “colour,” but, in spite of the adage that a “ good horse 
is never of a bad colour,” he would decidedly point out light chest- 
nuts, yellow bays, or light greys, as objectionable, not only to the 
eye, but as indicative of a delicate constitution. White legs 
should also be avoided, particularly before , as more liable to grease, 
and terminating in white hoofs, which are always weaker in texture 
than black ones. Rusty browns or blacks, and other dull and un- 
decided colours, should also be avoided, as rendering a horse (de- 
sirable in all essential points) less attractive to the eye, and con- 
sequently less valuable. 
In the rearing of foals, he would remark that it was of the 
utmost importance to keep them well, and shelter them (particu- 
larly during the first autumn and winter) ; for if starved and checked 
in their growth at this period, they seldom attained the same 
amount of bone and sinew that proper attention during the first 
year in a great measure secures. 
3 M 
VOL. XVII. 
