Southern planter - The W&M Digital Archive

1859.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 437
From the.British Farmer's Magazine.
The Principles that should Guide the
Farmer in Breeding Stock, with more
especial reference to Houses.
A quarterly meeting of the members of
the Wen lock Farmers' Club was recently
held, at the Raven Hotel, Much Wenlock,
to hear Mr. Griffith Evans, of Bridgnorth,
deliver a lecture upon " The principles that
should guide the farmers in breeding stock,
with more especial reference to horses."
In the absence of the President, the Rev.
H. R. Smythies was called to the chair.
The lecturer began by contrasting the
present Shropshire-down sheep with their
ancestors thirty years ago, and he showed
how that the great improvement had been
made by breeding upon some scientific principles.
Yet he was persuaded that many
follow the new system who are not acquainted
with the principles. They do it because
it is the fashion, and answers the purpose
better—not knowing the why and the
wherefore it should answer better. He
should therefore draw their attention to Na-
ture's laws of breeding. The same law is
applicable to all animals, only, of course,
requiring certain modifications which their
good sense might easily direct. It is a lamentable
fact that horse-breeding is very
much neglected throughout the country,
especially hunters and carriage horses; nor
has the draught horse had the attention he
deserves. He (Mr. Evans) should, therefore,
more especially point out how to apply
the principles of breeding to horses than to
other animals. Mr. Robert Smith, in his
excellent "Report on the Exhibition of
Live Stock at Chester," published in the
last volume of the Royal Agricultural Society's
Journal, says that " The breeding of
the horse is a national subject, but as yet
has not been treated as such. There is a
want of system in our arrangement and
management." He quite agreed with Mr.
Smith. Our fairs are overstocked with
horses, but so shapeless that it is difficult to
say for what purpose most of them are
adapted. He thought he might safely say
that the average value of four-fifths of our
four-year-old horses, of all sorts that we see
in the fairs, is hardly £20 to £25, and it is
difficult to sell many of them at any price.
Now, taking into consideration their cost of
breeding and rearing, with all risks and so
on, no wonder, then, breeders say they do
not pay. The average value of the remaining
one-fifth it is difficult to say ; but
they sell readily for from £40 up to almost
any amount you can reasonably conceive.
Now, I ask those breeders who complain,
why do they breed horses at all ? " Oh,"
they say, " to consume the grass properly
we must have cattle, sheep, and horses, too,
—they all differ in their bite so." Very
well, then, if you breed horses of some
sort, why don't you breed good ones ? Does
an ill-shaped horse consume less food than a
good one ? Is it cheaper to breed poor
than good horses ? My motto is this always
: " If it is worth my while to do a
thing at all, it is worth my while to do it as
well as I possibly can ;" and I have no hesitation
at all in saying that it would pay
you as well as anything to breed real good
horses. Some of you may perhaps say, as
I have heard others say, that in breeding
cattle and sheep you are seldom disappointed;
the progeny is always what you expected
; while in breeding horses you have
no idea what the colour or shape of the
colt will be until you see it, it is quite a
lottery. It may be this : it may be that.
You hope the best, and the worst will disappoint
you; for you do not believe in
horse-flesh. Thank you, my dear friend,
that is a candid confession at any rate,
which goes so far as to prove that you have
never practised horse-breeding upon right
principles. Before I came here I lived in
Lincolnshire. There, good horses are com-
paratively plentiful ; much better than those
bred in Shropshire, taking all together.
You excel in sheep ; I wish you to excel in
horses, too ; I wish to see dealers flocking
from all parts of the world to Shropshire
for horses. I wish to see the tide turned
from Lincoln and Horncastle fairs to
Shrewsberry and Bridgnorth; or, at any
rate, to see the trade as strong here as
there. It is not impossible ; the country
is naturally well adapted for breeding purposes;
you only want the system. Don't
despair, a patient perseverance will overcome
all difficulties. Let us all, then, this
evening, enter into the subject in good
earnest, determined to sift the matter tho-
roughly, and to profit by the investigation.
He went on to notice that the first great
law of nature in breeding is, that like
should produce like ; if it was not for this
law, which is constant and without exception,
a mare might produce a calf, a sow