26 
ON INCREASING OUR SUPPLIES OF CAVALRY HORSES. 
By Willoughby Wood. 
Sir, — I address you once more on the subject of horses. 
My object in doing so is, the great importance to the 
country which an adequate supply of cavalry horses is 
beginning to assume. During the two last years, the demand 
for every description of useful horses has exceeded the 
supply. Agricultural horses never were known to be so 
scarce, nor to fetch such prices. Three year old fillies have 
in many districts fetched upwards of £50, and colts of the 
same age £60, while even foals have commonly been sold for 
£20 each — a price which, some years since, would have 
bought a colt of an age fit to work. The prices of hunters 
have been, and still are, enormous ; indeed, of those which 
combine power with good looks, it maylbe said that the value 
is pretty nearly what the owner chooses to put upon them. 
Such being the case, it cannot excite surprise that it has 
lately been found necessary to raise the price given for 
cavalry horses, which may be regarded as forming a class 
between those used in agriculture and those devoted to the 
chase. Of ordinary troop-horses, indeed, a certain number 
would, if not purchased for the army, have been employed in 
farming operations, being the most active and best breed of 
that class ; while the remainder would have found work as 
low-priced hunters, as hacks, and carriage-horses. It is 
thus evident that an extraordinary demand for troop-horses 
must always, of itself, tend to diminish the supply and raise 
the price of the general stock of horses throughout the 
country. But at the present time, coexistently with such a 
demand, there is also a greater demand than usual for farm- 
horses, while the call for hunters does not appear to diminish, 
and that for hacks and carriage- horses is probably also on 
the increase. Under these circumstances, the supply of 
horses is, for many years to come, likely to fall short of the 
general demand for them ; and, as a natural consequence, 
their price will be higher than it has ever been. 
It becomes, then, a question of importance alike to the 
community and to the agriculturist — How is the supply of 
horses fit for cavalry purposes to be increased? It is an 
anomaly which ought not to be borne by a nation so cele- 
brated as ourselves for horses, that we are only able to send 
our cavalry by hundreds, when our enemy sends his by 
thousands into the field. If, therefore, we are to increase 
