ESSAYS, ETC.

[From the London Farmers' Magazine.]

BREEDING HORSES.

A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JOHN EVELYN DENISON.

BY W. DICKENSON.

My Dear Sir: You have asked me to give you an outline of my experience in breeding horses, with special reference to my success with the cart stallion I imported from France, to the intent that it may be published in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal. If you think anything I can state will be interesting to the members of the Society, I shall have great pleasure in complying with your request. I have been engaged with every class of horse from the winner of the St. Leger down to the horse walking the cart, and purpose to make mention of them all, except the race-horse, which I shall merely notice so far as he exerts a general influence for good or for bad upon our horses at large. And first permit me to address some general remarks to those members of the Royal Agricultural Society who have had less experience than myself, and beg the indulgence of readers who may think that I enter too much into the detail of a subject with which they are well acquainted. It is necessary to consider, before, beginning to breed horses, whether the land designed for it is fit for the purpose of breeding sound, healthy animals. If it is, the starting point is right—you have reason to hope for success; if it is not, it is far wiser not to make the attempt, but to buy in and sell out as quickly as is convenient. It is thoroughly well known that sheep bred upon wet, undrained, boggy soils, have defective constitutions; they have diseased livers, decayed feet, and inferior wool, and are so thoroughly unsound in many instances that they die in great numbers without remedy. Horsebreeding may be attended with similar risks, which should be steadily kept in view. Horses should be bred upon a dry subsoil to make them

sound in constitution, sound in wind, and sound in color, by which I mean that whatever be the horse's color, it should be a deep, not a faint one. The surface, moreover, should be fertile, abounding in carbonate and phosphate of lime, to grow horses of full size, with plenty of bone and muscle. Upon this subsoil and this surface, you may expect sound, full-sized, healthy animals. A wet, spongy, clay soil produces delicate constitutions, defective wind, pale colors, and large flat feet. If your land is not dry naturally, perhaps it can be made so by effective drainage; if it cannot, do not attempt to breed horses-every kind of disappointment will follow such a course. Neither are a very dry subsoil and very dry surface desirable, for these produce small animals with narrow, contracted feet. The next step is to procure good mares to breed from; these should not be used because you have them, still less because they are unsaleable, but should be bought for this especial purpose, and selected with great care. I should advise their being bought in the autumn of the year, when two years old off, to be put to the horse in the following spring. I advise this because they are all brought to market at that time, the choice is greater, they are purchased at less cost, they are more free from defects, and also breed much better. They have never been made up, but are brought direct from the grass fields, which is very important as to soundness of wind and limb. No one has ever tried to breed from them, and sold because they fail to do so; if they are unsuccessful in your hands, you can part with them at five or six years old, most likely at a profit. It is important to have made up your mind fully what kind of horses you propose to breed before you begin to select the mares. They must be the very best of their kind, with the best action, and free from all defects of wind and limb. Such animals as are roarers, or who have curbs or curby hocks, spavins or splents, are unfit for the purpose. The toes should point in straight lines; they should not turn outwards, and had better not turn in. The feet should be of moderate size, not round, but of an oval shape. Convex soles are particularly to be avoided. The excess of substance should be on the side of the mare, she should be made useful on the farm; the blood on the side of the horse. Where elegance of appearance and speed are to be combined, or either to be had, it must come from the thoroughbred side. Weight and substance come from the cart, but elegance and pace from the blood. There is no substitute for blood where pace and continuance are required.

As I have begun saying something about the stallion, I will just observe with what care breeders of cattle select their bulls, not only looking well at every line of their bodies, but at every feature of their faces; their width, the length, their color, and their touch must be approved, and even

their ancestors for many generations are taken into consideration. Rams are just as closely inspected. In both cases the action must be good; they must stand straight upon their legs, and be able to move with ease to themselves. Breeders of horses would do well to use as much care in selecting stallions for their mares, but I am disposed to think they do not. It is. not unusual to avoid the trouble, and put the mares to some convenient horse. Economy sometimes suggests that "this horse is only one or two pounds, he is just as good as the absent one, whose price is perhaps double." Another very important feature is to be observed. Breeders of cattle and sheep keep their best females to breed from-the better they are the longer they are kept; with horses, the better they are the sooner they are sold, not even the very best young mares being reserved for the stud. Those that cannot find a customer are too frequently kept and bred from; it is not an unusual saying with disappointed breeders, "If I cannot sell her I will put her to the horse." Great advances have been made in the breeding of cattle, sheep and pigs, in every part of the United Kingdom during the last forty years. What is the case with regard to horses? Have they. not retrograded in the same degree? Can the present race of horses be compared with those bred forty years since? The cart-horse, perhaps, is the only class that can bear the comparison. There is a cause for all this,

which I shall mention hereafter.

Here I close the general remarks, and proceed to mention the cart-horse I imported from France, with the result of my practice. I fancy some of my readers saying, "what induced you to buy a French, horse? Could you not find one good enough in your own country?" My answers to those persons is, yes, I could, and did so. I bought what I thought, and others thought too, a splendid horse; I bred from him, and so did my neighbors, very good horses; and I should have continued thinking there were no better cart-horses in the world than the English; but in 1855 I went to the International Exhibition in Paris, where I had sent some short-horned cattle. There my attention was attracted to a class of horses I had never seen before. I looked at them and was astonished, seeing them drawing great long carts, as long as the English wagons, loaded with immense blocks of stone (not as ours are loaded in London, with two or three blocks,) walking nimbly away the whole day from the pit to the building. These immense loads of stone made me think of the three or four drayhorses drawing at a much slower pace a few butts of beer through the London streets. These horses, walking so nimbly with these great loads of stone, were not so fat as our own favorites, but they seemed to me to be doing twice the work. Although leaner, they bore the strictest scru tiny; the more I saw of them the more I admired them. Meeting Mr.

Jonas Webb, I called his attention to them. He said he had never seen such before; he had observed a horse taking into the show-yard an immense load of provender for the cattle, that astonished him beyond measure; he had resolved to try to buy him, but he lost sight of him that day, and never saw him afterwards. I thought them so superior to ours, that I resolved to buy one to take home. Very much to my disappointment, I could not find one young enough and good enough to buy. I saw them every day at their work, but none for sale. I went through all the dealers' stables without succeeding. I furnished myself with all the information to be obtained as to fairs on my way home; to some of which I went, and found, just as at our common small horse fairs, rot a good horse in them. I happened to stay a day at Rouen, when the pavement of the bridge was up, over which great loads of goods had to be drawn to the quay; there again I saw these horses coming with their great loads of goods, which they could not draw through the mud more than a few yards at once, drag themselves almost to the ground, and I never saw one refuse to draw again and again. This confirmed by resolution to have one of them; so I made an arrangement with a principal dealer in Paris, and in 1856 bought the horse I call "Napoleon," which Mr. Dennison has asked about. I have never once regretted the purchase. He has been worked on my farm ever since, almost always with mares. I have never had so good, quiet, active, and powerful a horse before. In no instance has he given us any trouble. He is unlike our English cart horse, for with great (16) hands high,) and immense substance, he shows a dash of blood. He has an Arabian head, not small, but of fine character, well proportioned to his size. The neck is very muscular, and well turned, the shoulders large, very deep, without lumps on the sides, and oblique, such in shape as would not be objected to for a riding horse; the bosom open, the fore legs magnificent, and very short, with great bone, hard sinews, and with little hair upon them. His feet are perfect in shape, and perfectly sound in work; his back short rather dipped, round-shaped ribs, large loins, rather plain drooping hindquarters, very large thighs, low down, and tightly joined together, with prodigiously powerful clean hocks, and very short hind legs, well under him. We never have had a difficulty with the engine or thrasher, or with anything in the mud that Nap. could not extricate us from. His stock are as good and kind as possible. It is a saying with the men that Nap's. colts need no breaking. My mares are small and active; the stock are considerably larger than the dams, but so cleanly that as foals they look more like carriage horses. I think the cart mares, to work and breed, should be of moderate size, from 15 to 16 hands. They should be long, low, wide, and handsome, compactly made, with short back, arching down

wards, and with wide table shaped loin. The legs should be short and clean, the bone large, especially behind. They should be good walkers, and as I recommend working the mares on the farm, the high stepping action must not be overlooked. The mares should not be put to the horse to produce foals before the grass comes on in May, when the work of the farm is very much abated, the mares can be spared for a short time, the grass will be convenient for the milk, and the weather warm for the foals. These will do well with the mares at grass (after being kept in a few nights,) till the autumn. I work my mares moderately up to the day of foaling, and I think it assists the operation; but they should not be put to snatching, distressing work. When the foals are weaned in the autumn, they must have shelter and be well kept. A few oats, cut roots, cut hay, and a little bran, will do well for them till they go to grass again in the following summer, during which time the colts must be castrated. In the winter they may again be kept in sheds. They should never be allowed to get poor. They will be useful at three years old, and do half the work of horses if kept in a cool, well ventilated stable. I have just read some observations made by Mr. Ruck, in the course of his recent lecture upon steam cultivation, delivered before the Royal Agricultural Society. He describes the inconvenience he has suffered from the illness of his farm horses, which appears to me excessive when I compare it with my own experience. I will therefore detail with some minuteness how I think such misfortunes may be avoided by gentlemen equally unfortunate with Mr. Ruck, who are compelled to employ horses in consequence of their farms being too small to allow of the use of Mr. Fowler's steam-tackle. With the aid of three illustrations, I will describe the stable in which the cart horse can live healthily, consume his food without waste, while the liquid manure is economized for the highest fertilizing purpose. The stable should not be less than eighteen feet wide, and of such a length as will allow a six feet standing for each horse. It should be ten feet high. The horses stand in a single row, and the harness is hung on pegs in the wall behind them. This width admits of thorough ventilation to the stable, without subjecting the horses to draughts. Each standing should be parted off by an upright post reaching from the ground to the ceiling rafter, placed three feet off from the wall at the horses head. These partitions should be closely boarded up three feet above the manger and hay crib, to prevent the horses quarreling about the food, and kicking each other. To each of these posts a bale, eight feet long and one foot eight inches wide, should be hung by a strong chain, to divide the standings, and suspended by another strong chain at the hinder end from the ceiling rafter. Each chain should have a hook and eye within reach, that may be readily unfast