AN AMERICAN STUD FARM.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1558, 29 June 1882, Page 3

AN AMERICAN STUD FARM.

" Jm:om Tjkrky" the San Francisco corlespondentof the Otat/o Witness, after refen ing to the lecent exportation of trotting stock to New Zealand, says :— The care and attention bestowed upon breeding fast roadsters in the United States has produced the finest class of carriage hoises in the world, and as the business is m its infancy there is, no telling just Avliat its limits may be. There are several stud farms in California which have attained national reputation. I recently paid a visit to Governor Stanford's now celebrated Palo Alto farm, which he has created in four years. It is really worth a long journey to see. He has about 537 head of horse stock, mostly >11 yearlings and two-yeav-olds, in addition to the most famous dams and sires money could purchase. He has constructed a large artificial lake for irrigation, and has a canopied stand for himself where he passes most of the day, when at Belmont, watching the young stock at work on the short track. His large track is like a well-kept racecourse. (Several of the Palo Alto yearlings have made the fastest time on record, but the performance of the best colt of all (the most perfect picture of horseflesh 1 ever .saw) has not been made public ; and when he goes East, as he is destined to go soon, he will be a revelation to the blue-glass country and the Pennsylvania studs, which have been looking up since Foxhall and Iroquois captured the " blue ribbon" of the French and English turf. At Palo Alio the horses work or exercise six days, and keep Sunday as a day of perfect rest. No smoking is allowed on the farm. Not only is it forbidden to strike an animal, but an angry word by any of the hands is followed by instant dismissal. " You spoil a horse's temper by scolding him, or sweaiiug at him, just as much as by striking him," remarked the polite manager to me. "There is no vice in any of the stock. They don't know what fear is. They have always been kindly anil- affectionately treated, and regard men as friends. Just come and see !" "Saying which, we~ pusbid;the slide-gate, and stepped into a paddock With .about 40 yearling fillies.' The creatures Wooded up to us, -''pushing^ jtlSSir jioseB : ratq our ''natfdV to be Some,' moreVplayfiu other «V J^nen; !they failed jfco: obtain, recognition. 3 sup ,i*p t>njod -m: i£sty<l|#rf#

coat or thnist their heads unceremoniously over one's shoulder. They were absolutely without fear or timidity, and had no conceptiou whatever that a man could be other than a friend. And so it was through paddock to paddock, among young and old stock, and from stall to stall in the stables. I never was so forcibly struck with the advantage of adhering to the law of kindness. The drivers get far better work out of the stock than they could if the animals were worried and crossed by abuse or angry words. The whip is an unknown driving implement at Palo Alto. And Palo Alto itself : the spot is one of the most charming on the peninsula terminating at San Francisco. It is protected from the ocean breeze by a spur of the coast range, while in front the broad champain, studded with trees, farms, and costly mansions, extends to the Bay of San Francisco, across which, even well on in the season, the snow-topped peaks of the main coast uange close the view. Long stretches of pasture, of vineyard and orangery, surround the stud farm. This is only one, however, of the many beautiful places on the Peninsula. The next neighbour of Governor Stanford has not only a fine stud of racing stock, young and old, with training track and other appliances complete, but he has as fine a breed of Heretords as I ever saw. I think it would almost pay Mr Every Maclean to leave for a time the pleasant glades of Waikato, and the New Zealand Company's (?) stud farm there, and make a trip of pleasure and profit to California, to see what we have done in the way of breeding shorthorns, Herefords, and Jersey cattle, ■heep, and horse stock. By all appearances, this State will soon lead the Continent upon all points in breeding blooded stock.