186 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Man., 1898. 
made to make a distinct breed of the Clydesdale, but for all practical purposes 
the Clydesdale is the draught horse of Scotland, and the draught horse of 
Scotland is the Clydesdale. 
The question may still be asked how we in Australia are to apply or profit 
by this Scottish experience. In England they are profiting by it—by rapidly 
improving the Shire horse by a free use of Clydesdale sires. We shall profit 
by it if our breeders can be brought to realise the baneful effects of indis- 
criminately. crossing the oblique and straight formation, and get educated to 
appreciate the greater value of the oblique formation of the Arab for all 
purposes, compared with the straight formation peculiar to the old types of 
heavy horses represented by the Belgium, Percheron, Suffolk Punch, and Shires. 
Too much importance has been given, by writers on the horse, to breeds—any 
slightly specialised family is at once arbitrarily defined and dubbed as a distinct 
breed. This to a-young or inexperienced breeder is unnecessarily confusing. 
Belgium, Percheron, and Suffolk Punch are evidently all of one type and 
origin. In England almost every county gave its name to a breed. It would 
be a good thing if Australian horse-breeders would simply ignore a deal of those 
arbitrary distinctions where no practical difference exists, and confine them- 
selves to acquiring a thorough knowledge of the two types of formation. With 
the straight formation predominant, the horse remains of a low type or order. 
A horse to be of a high order of merit must have the oblique formation. The 
cross-bred horse in which a combination of those two formations meet is the 
unspeakable thing in horseflesh, and the language it provokes is unprintable. 
I have written to little purpose if I am not understood as an advocate for 
breeding on Arab lines. Whether they be drawn from Arab, English thorough- 
bred, Yorkshire hackney, Irish hunter, or Clydesdale, matters little, so long 
-as the oblique lines and stout staying powers of the Arab are obtained. 
