100 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
old oi- new Cleveland race as animals of all 
work, and at the same time with a view to 
profit in rearing horses for London use, or 
mares for which there is a great demand, 
under the general denomination of “York¬ 
shire mares,” for breeding purposes, in most 
parts of the Kingdom. 
2. Hunters at this day do not exist as a 
distinct breed. All stallions exhibited at the 
Lincoln Country Meeting of the Royal Agri¬ 
cultural Society, as adapted to get Hunters, 
according to the terms of the special prizes 
offered, were thoroughbred. 
3. The third class embraces Roadsters, 
whose merits I was perhaps not in the best 
condition to appreciate, having just seen the 
much more stately and imposing Clevelands, 
and Flying Dutchman, Chanticleer, v and 
other renowned thoroughbreds, at the jjlaw- 
cliffe Paddocks. Roadster, in Yorkshire, is 
the synonyme of Nag ; and I infer from an 
account of the last Yorkshire Agricultural 
Society’s meeting, from what Burton told 
me, and from other sources, that it is like¬ 
wise the synonyme of Hack or Hackney, as 
the term is frequently used in that part of 
England by the tenant-farmers. It is alleged 
that the Roadsters constitute a distinct 
breed. The trotting horses of the countj/ of 
Norfolk,! should judge from the specimens 
I saw, they are a sub-variety of this Roadster 
race, which is probably a modification and 
improvement of the best character of the 
old English pack horse effected originally by 
a cross with the French “ cart-cob.” The 
Roadster is a plain, strong, compact, and 
rather low horse, not exhibiting in his ap¬ 
pearance indications of any share of ori¬ 
ental lineage, and very frequently having 
cloven quarters ( croupe double ) like the 
Cart Horse. His only smart action is a trot. 
He bends his knees and lifts up his feet, 
throws them out and puts them dow n well 
in this gait. I saw none of this breed ex¬ 
cept stallions and mares, at York, stallions 
at the Royal Agricultural Society’s meet¬ 
ing at Lincoln, and a mare, called a Road¬ 
ster, of the Messrs. Hall at Dudding Hill, 
used by them for driving to cover, in the 
hunting season.* This last animal is a 
capital trotter and a good “ stepper,” but ex¬ 
ceedingly plain in appearance. The Road¬ 
ster was formerly and is still chiefly used as 
a tenant-farmer's (not a landed proprietor’s) 
saddle horse, but not without being called 
upon occasionally to do light work in har¬ 
ness—for example, in a gig, droskv, or light 
marketing vehicle. He is a degree above 
the Cob, ( double poney,) who, I suppose, is 
the accidental result of crosses between 
sturdy pony stallions and small cart mares, 
or mares of the old Pack Horse English 
race. The Roadster I take to be the substi¬ 
tute of the old Road Horse, of whom Low 
spoke in 1840 as follows : “ Not only has 
the system of public conveyance by coaches 
called forth a lighter and more agile race of 
horses, but it has acted in another way on 
the saddle horses of the-country. By alter¬ 
ing the mode of performing journeys it has 
diminished the inducement to cultivate par¬ 
ticular kinds of horses. Few persons now 
make distant journeys on horseback, and are 
willing to travel at the rate of five miles an 
hour, when they can be carried forward at 
the rate of ten or more. A horseman with 
his load of saddle bags is now almost as rare a 
sight as an elephant. A class of saddle 
horses, accordingly, formerly used for jour¬ 
neys, has now almost disappeared. They 
were termed Road Horses, and were suited 
to their employment. They were strong, 
useful and safe, but had little or no breeding. 
Their paces were the walk and trot; and the 
canter and the gallop were nearly as much 
out of place with them as with the Cart 
*The more usual custom is to ride “ Hacks” to cover. 
Horse. The Cob, too, a little squat horse 
fitted for drudgery, is with some difficulty 
to be procured. For the shorter journeys 
now in use, and for all the usual services of 
the equestrian, animals of lighter form and 
more easy paces are preferred, and few hab¬ 
itual riders are satisfied with horses that have 
not more or less of breeding.” 
I also quote below what the same author 
says of the Hackney,* expressing, however, 
my dissent from his description, if it were 
intended to apply at the present day, unless 
he means the tenant-farmer’s Hackney, alias 
Roadster, alias Nag, for now the pleasure 
hack or the park hack has generally fully as 
much breeding as the Hunter, (if not more,) 
and height also frequently, and would proba¬ 
bly be used as a hunter or harness horse if 
he had sufficient “ stoutness,” which is 
strength coupled with constitutional vigor, 
bottom and general powers of endurance.! 
“ The term Hackney, in common use, 
is employed to denote a kind of horse fitted 
for general services ; and is, therefore, un¬ 
derstood to exclude the horses of the high¬ 
est breeding, as the Thoroughbred horse and 
Hunter ; and there is further associated with 
the idea of a Hackney, an animal of moder¬ 
ate size, not exceeding fifteen hands, and 
possessing action, strength and temper.” 
But he adds—“the Hackneys of the present 
day [1840, and much more so in 1855,] are of 
lighter form than those formerly sought for, 
and there is greater difficulty in obtaining 
them to suit the services required from our 
present mixed varieties of half-bred horses, 
than when horsemen were contented with 
the older class of Hackneys of stouter form 
but inferior breeding.” It is important to 
bear in mind that Low, in the passage just 
cited, means part-bred by half-bred, and that 
the English apply the term half-bred, to 
every horse with any degree of breeding, no 
matter how minute, if it be appreciable, nor 
how great, provided it be short of full blood. 
The term saddle-horses sometimes signifies 
only Hacks—no body now-a-days taking the 
trouble to say Hackneys—but it is com¬ 
monly employed in a more general sense to 
embrace Hunters and Chargers as well, but 
not Race Horses, although they go under the 
saddle on the turf. Horses for the field or 
the chase are Hunters. Horses used only 
for road purposes under the saddle, or for 
road riding in contradistinction to both field¬ 
riding and turf-riding, are Hacks. The most 
showy and elegant variety of Hacks are 
called Park Hacks, the nobility and gentry 
of the British Empire riding them in Hyde 
Park in Rotten Row during the London sea¬ 
son. Harry Hieover,]; if I recollect rightly, 
divides Hacks into three classes, and gives 
his opinion of them respectively, in sub¬ 
stance, as follows: 
“ The thoroughbred or nearly thorough¬ 
bred Hack,” whose trot is nothing to boast 
of, and whose chief gaits are the walk, can¬ 
ter, and gallop. This is, according to the 
English phrase, a most “gentlemanly horse” 
in appearance. 
“ The general Hack,” not so highly bred 
as the foregoing, but with general paces— 
one who canters and gallops well but does 
not “ slip along” like the thoroughbred or 
nearly thoroughbred, and also trots well,but 
not like the Trotter or Trotting Hack, next 
to be mentioned. This is quite a gentle¬ 
manly-looking animal, and entirely a gentle¬ 
man’s horse. 
* This word is doubtless derived from the French Ha- 
quenee . 
tOn the turf, stoutness is used in contradistinction to 
mere speed ; and it is applied to a horse who can run and 
win long races, and many of them to an advanced age, 
with heavy jockeys, on deep ground, and, if need be, 
make his final brushwith advantage up hill, 
t Practical Horsemanship. 
[To be continued.] 
ENC0URAGING- TO FARMERS. 
Under this head we wrote a short article 
last week, urging farmers to prepare their 
ground as well as possible, and plant the very 
most they could take good care of this sea¬ 
son ; adding that their crops, however large, 
could not but sell extraordinarily high as soon 
as ready for market. A correspondent 
thinks we are over sanguine in our estima¬ 
tion of high prices, should the crops prove 
very abundant. In answer to this we will 
say that since writing the article alluded to, 
we find many of our cotemporaries take the 
same view of the question as we do. The 
following on this subject is from the N. Y, 
Tribune : 
STARVATION PRICES. 
It is the duty and interest of every man 
who owms a piece of land whereon he can sow 
a bushel of grain, not to allow the Spring to 
slip by without doing it. We are at starva¬ 
tion prices in breadstuff's as well as in meat. 
We shall have a famine if we do not look 
out. The nations of Europe are engaged in 
the amiable business of butchering one 
another, and if the half dozen gentlemen at 
Vienna and their backers do not come to 
terms, this state of things will continue, and 
perhaps for half a dozen seasons. The fer¬ 
tile plains of that continent, instead of being 
used for producing what will feed its popu¬ 
lation, will be the scenes of havoc and blood¬ 
shed, and Death alone will reap a harvest 
therefrom. If, in addition, the crops in the 
island of Great Britain should be cut short, 
(and it must be remembered they were very 
abundant last year,) it will be left to the 
valley of the Mississippi, mainly, to supply 
the immense vacuum abroad. Under such 
circumstances, the drain upon us for foreign 
consumption is likely to be greater than it 
has ever been before. Our present reserves 
of breadstuff's must be very light, as the high 
prices of corn and flour plainly enough de¬ 
note. Our corn crop last year was wonder¬ 
fully small, as was well established at har¬ 
vest time, without aid from the prices cur¬ 
rent. 
Entering upon the year with exhausted 
granaries at home, with a poor crop follow¬ 
ing, and an immense European demand, 
grave apprehension may well be excited as 
to our circumstances a year hence. We 
have had a hard winter and enormously high 
prices throughout. But what is all we have 
seen to what we shall see, if we should 
chance to have a bad summer, and the war 
goes on in Europe. We may then see suf¬ 
fering and starvation in earnest. 
It is in view of this not merely possible, 
but too probable state of things, that we in¬ 
voke the attention of farmers every where, 
in the East as well as the West, to omit no 
effort or opportunity to swell, in large and in 
small quantities, the product of the soil the 
coming year. New-England, especially, 
should bestir herself. At a dollar a bushel 
for corn and ten dollars for flour, these ar¬ 
ticles can be raised at very great profit all 
over the North. The low prices of many 
years have diminished the cultivation of the 
cereal grains throughout the northern sec¬ 
tion of the country immensely, and New- 
Hngland has learned to rely on Illinois and 
Michigan, on North Carolina and Maryland, 
for her supplies of breadstuff's. The amount 
of corn and flour taken into Boston and other 
Eastern ports from the South and West, for 
consumption at home, is wonderful. Whole 
lines of packets go freighted weekly to the 
East with grains and flour from New-York, 
Philadelphia and Baltimore, poured into those 
markets through the great arteries of trade 
from the West, to be distributed over the 
