IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL HORSES. 
G35 
as only a few fibres are taken at a time)—if^ during the resi¬ 
dence in the stable^ the same care be continued and a proper 
protection from cold atmosphere be afforded^ a fineness of 
coat and general improvement in appearance would be 
reasonably expected to follow. Pursuing this plan with 
diligence, and constantly exercising the greatest care in 
selection, our object would ultimately be attained. We are 
not contending that agricultural horses are to be subnnitted 
to the same system of management which is considered to be 
adapted to the race-horse or hunter; it is our object to 
explain the nature of those influences which oppose them¬ 
selves to the improvement of the so-called coarser breeds, 
and to gain, if possible, a general assent to the conclusion 
which a fair examination of the evidence will establish, to 
wit, the inutility of a careful selection of proper parents, 
possessing in some measure the faculties we desire to im¬ 
prove, while our general system of management is in direct 
opposition to the cultivation of those faculties, and tends 
directly to a return to the original condition. Thus, by suc¬ 
cessive alternations of two systems—one advancing and the 
other retrograding—we succeed only in maintaining a medio¬ 
crity in the results. 
Passing from these prelimi.nary but nevertheless important 
points, we proceed to the statement of our subject. The 
immediate question proposed for consideration refers, in a 
particular manner, to the breeds of agricultural horses 
adapted to the West of England. In order properly to 
examine the proposition in detail, it is desirable, first, to 
determine as nearly as possible the boundaries of the pre¬ 
scribed district, so that we may be enabled to ascertain the 
general geological features which give character to the soils, 
upon whose nature the agricultural peculiarities of the coun¬ 
try will mainly dependv 
(7h he contimiech) 
