A HORSE FARM.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1915, 14 April 1880, Page 3

A HORSE FARM.

On the subject of establishing a horsebreeding farm in England “Nimrod,” a writer in the “ Live Stock Journal,” writes as follows:

In the pursuit of agriculture as a vocation farms are each devoted to some special object of cultivation, to which all other produce is of minor consideration. On one it is wheat, on another the dairy, on a third meat, and so on. Wo have breeding studs for racehorses, the only horse breeding on a large scale that is supoosed to pay; but we have no extensive farms mainly devoted to the production of perfect types of the class of horse which, in their various gradations, are best suited to cavalry, artillery, carriage, brougham, hunting, and general road work ; and the weedings from which would afford a supply of animals fit for omnibus, cab, and ordinary hackney purposes. We have no systematic horsebreeding establishments of this sort. On the contrary, such horses as we just have alluded to are produced haphazard, in units, anyhow, anywhere, as waifs and strays of horseflesh. Owing to foreign competition and other causes there seems to be many changes impending in British modes of agricultural procedure. And we submit it as a matter worthy of serious consideration whether under existing circumstances horse-farming on a sound judicious plan could not be made to pay better than the average tillage farm. Grass and hay supply three-fourths of the requirements of brood mares and theii* juvenile progeny, and most of tho crops usually grown make food as suitable to horses as to sheep and oxen. Oats, clover, hay, beans, carrots, parsnips, and even swedes (which are, when steamed or boiled, a capital Buba'itute for bran mashes) are alias good for horses as they are for other cattle ; while straw, of course, is used similarly for both as chaff or bedding. The two chief objections to breeding horses of this class are : —lst. That they are longer in bringing in any return to their breeders than other stock, while the expenses of their keep are greater. 2nd. That they are more liable to accident and disease than other cattle. To the first, it may he replied that the mares and colts offer an advantage over the others, inasmuch as by working some of the proportionally large number there would be at command, for half or quarter days on the farm, in lieu of exercise, the land could be kept in the highest tilth and the cleanest order ; the mares and colts going far to pay for their keep. If sensibly managed, this, insicad of doing them any harm, would tend to develop the growth and vigour of the colts and fillies, even from two years of age and upwards. And, with specially devised light tilting waggons —to be used instead of breaks—the cartage of the farm could be accomplished, and the education of the young horses, in a great measure, carried on at the same time. With regard to the second drawback in horse-breeding—the animal’s liability to disease and accident to a greater degree than other stock—two considerations should be kept well in mind. In ordinary horse breeding little or no attention is paid to hereditary disease, hence threefourths of the disappointments of the breeder; in a stud farm both parents would bo sound. And, as to accidents —most of these occur on ordinary farms through the carelessness or ignorance of people not properly trained to the treatment of horses under all circumstances. The vigilance and knowledge of the men on a breeding farm would prevent most accidents. Then the return for the outlay of capital would be better than many might suppose. Really sound, handsome, wellbroken colts or fillies of the desired sort, fetch twice or thrice the prices of bullocks when they are each respectively throe or four years old. So that the bugbears retire when fairly faced.

The English thoroughbred, descended from the Arab, is tho foundation of our excellence in horses. But any hobby may be ridden to death ; ard there are not a few skilled and thoughtful horsemen who think that—for most purposes other than racing or the fastest hunting—another class of horso may be produced, superior, for intercourse with average work-a-day mares, to the pure thoroughbred. The Cleveland Bay, now almost extinct, was nearly perfect in colour, figure, and temper as the parent of horses bred for utility and handsome appeiranee, though his action was not. grand enough for the exaeti- g eye of tho present day. Tne most, favoured heavy draught burse of the period—the Clydesdale —posotssss several most excellent qualities ; hut it may be qu 'Stioned whether an average of first crosses between him and any other family of the horse would be calculated to turn out in figure, style, colour, &c.,attractive specimens of chargers, town carriage horses, or fashionable weight-carrying roadsters. Partly the same might bo said of the Suffolk Punch (which is a good true horse), for different reasons. But if middle-class horsebreeding—so to designate the animal intermediate bet-wren tho thoroughbred and the cart-

horse—were to come into vogue on a large scale, there would be no lack of shapely, wellknit, high-spiri'ei mares, with which to mate the Norman or other powerful non-thorough-bred stallions—a sort of sire that is as yet in embryo of conception. Let us suggestively picture such a hor ( farm as it might not be impossible to realise. Suppose it to contain 400 or 500 acres, properly drained, fenced, sheltered, and watered, the major portion being laid down for hay and grass, tho rest in tillage. Suppose a patriotic company, with a fair view to the natural self-interest of its shareholders, were to find the necessary brains, knowledge, and capital. There would be, of course, a suitable residence for the manager and his staff, with offices for the duo conduct of a wellplanned carefully managed business. Adjacent to this would bo skilfully designed permanent stables, storehouses, and roofod-in yards, for the accommodation of tho sires and the young stock preparing for, and nearly ready for, sale, and for the housing of tho crops grown on the farm. For the shelter of the greater portion of the brood mares and growing young stock no expensive permanent buildings would be needed ; oob-wallod houses or wooden sheds, thatched or felt-roofed would suffice ; and tho costly grooming of the racing or hunting stables might safely here give place to a system of rough and easy cleanliness ; while as to feeding, a free run at good grass in summer, and in winter some hours in the fields by day in fine weather, with hay, supplemented by a couple of full feeds of mixed cooked food, composed of the produce of the farm, with occasional additions of whatever was cheapest in tho current market, given warm night and morning, would keep the mares and foals in health, vigour, and contentment. Suppose, moreover, that this horse farm were the nucleus of a svstom of horse-breeding, to be extended in this way — in addition to the mares kept on the homo farm, there would be as many other similarly selected mares as locations could be found for in the surrounding district. These would be let out “ free,” for the lighter kinds of work, to the neighboring small gentry and farmers, on condition that, having been paired with the sire of the farm, the foals they bore and weaned wore to be the property of the proprietors of the farm at a fixed price, when, say six months old, they would join their relations in the homo sheds and grass runs, and share their advantages in forage, stabling, and education till they attained their majority and graduated at an auction, if they had not reached this state of beatitude in their horse teens.

Not the least benefit, from a horseman’s point of view, which would accrue to the general public from the establishment of such horse farms as are here suggested would ho the education in eye and judgment of the points of a horse, and the principles on which the desired animal should be bred. It is strange how few can form any useful estimate of a horse by looking at him. Fools often breed from favourite mares that had beat been poleaxed, and thus hand down their folly in a foal. But there would be sires at the farm suited to every sort of eligible mare ; and the experienced stud groom would mate them so judiciously that each would correct the faults of the other, and combine the perfections of both in their joint progeny. Any one horse farm would require at least a dozen different styles of sire to correct the imperfections in in symmetry—from Arab to the lowest class of Boman-nozed cart mares to be found within any given twenty square miles.