535 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
OYER AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
LECTURE BY MR. J. ELLIS, M.R.C.Y.S., Liverpool. 
The first lecture of the season in connection with this 
society was given on the evening of Wednesday, the 17th 
inst., in the long room at the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Over, by 
Mr. Ellis, veterinary surgeon, Liverpool, the subject being 
the “ Breeding and Rearing of the Horse.” The lecture 
occupied an hour in delivery, and, as usual at these meetings, 
an interesting discussion took place at its close. 
Mr. Dutton was called upon to preside, who on rising 
remarked that all he had to say was they had a very clever 
man to address them, and one well acquainted with the sub¬ 
ject he had to treat upon, and it only remained for him to 
introduce the lecturer. 
Mr. Ellis then delivered the following lecture :—The sub¬ 
ject I have the pleasure of introducing to this meeting is the 
breeding and rearing of the horse, and I shall endeavour to 
show its importance and the desirability of applying our best 
energies and attention to, and of adopting means not only 
for preventing the further deterioration of this noble and 
most useful animal, but of improving him and again render¬ 
ing him what he was twenty years ago. There is no use 
denying or shutting our eyes to the fact, he has deteriorated, 
and it behoves us to look well to the cause and to apply the 
remedy without further delay, for sure I am that we shall be 
amply repaid for our trouble, and I hesitate not to state that, 
so long as England holds its high position as a nation, we 
shall always find a quick and a ready sale for all the horses 
we can produce and at prices highly remunerative. The 
opening of railways and the application of that mighty power 
steam, was at first supposed would supersede the use of 
horses, and by driving off the rpads some hundreds of 
coaches did for a time cause a panic, and reduce the value 
of the class of horse that was used for coaching purposes, but 
this very soon righted itself, the railways opened up the 
country and thereby increased the demand for horses, and 
the numbers that were taken off the old coach roads were 
more than counterbalanced by the tributary traffic to the 
railway stations from places until then obscure and unim¬ 
portant. This is daily increasing, and must of necessity con- 
