The Farmer. Draught Horse-Breeding.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1926, 8 November 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

The F armer. Draught Horse-Breeding.

Ik the report which has just been issued by the Canadian Government, Mr. Dyke, the agent at Liverpool, makes lengthened allusion to the subject of horpe-breeding. He incorporates in his report two letters, which we reproduce. The first is from Mr. 11. S. Reynolds, M.K.C.V.S., Veterinary Inspector for the Corporation of Liverpool, and a wellknown owner, judge, and writer on draught horses ; and the second is from Mr. T. Lloyd, Manager of the Liverpool Tramway Company, and who has for many years been engaged in the selection and purchase of carriage horses and hunters. Mr. 'Reynolds writes as follows :— "I have to acknowledge the honor conferred by you in consulting me upon the subject of breeding hqraes suitable for heavy draught in the Dominion of Canada, and in response to your inquiries, I submit the following observations : — " From your description, the Canadian horses are a race of sound and hardy animals, but being deficient in Bize and bono, it will be necessary to import into Canada stock animals, possessing all the qualifications it is desirable to perpetuate. "I will, therefore, briefly review the va> pective merits of the different) breed? of draught horses, which my piofesbional pation and business experience have altoid.ni me opportunities of observing. "In this country there aie tlnce races oi draught horses, which, if not entitled to claim a distinct origin, are considered to be worths of a separate classification — the Suffolk, the Clydesdale, and the English Cait-horse, inoie correctly but less commonly called the Shiiijhorse. " The SuFi'OiiK. — For stoutness in uiaugbf, docility, and elegance, this biced h mucr prized in the county whence its name i 3 derived, and the immediate neighborhood, nn r > farm horses ; but they are to bo legaidecl rather as animals suited to the general purposes of agriculture than as products of one branch of husbandry, to be used on the farm until five or six years old, and then sold at a remunerative price for town work. " Thi: CiA'DEfeDALL.— The history of the Clydesdale horse, as written by admiieis of the breed, i 3 almost universally known, bin, in my opinion, he cannot claim so yvra a pedigree as the English hoise. The Clydesdale of forty years ago, as deseiibed and shown in portraits and illustration", was ait upstanding, activo.well-crested animal, ha\in;! sloping shoulders, good feet and paßtern?, bin somewhat narrow and split up, and posseting only about as- much bone and hau as ifound in the best Suffolks at the present time ; in fact, the horse seems to havo had no pretension to the growth of hair and development of bone now so highly prized by Clydesdale men. For many yea« pfisi it has been the practice of active Scotchmen to purchase in the English shires all the good, wide, wellcolored mares, possessing substance and hah, they could lay hands upon. Scotchmen, a^ a rule, like a full pennyworth for their penity, but in their purchase of bhire-brui innus they have not hesitated to pay higher pric^ than the value of the animals, ?<■:> working horses warranted. "It is, therefore, to be inferred that they were acquired for breeding purposes. and so used. If not for improving the stamp of the Clydesdales, the reason for their pin chase is not apparent. But however he may be bicd, there is no denying the fact that the impj o n d Clydesdale is a useful animal, and one generally esteemed in the northern town*! for hh hardiness and activity, but he will jet requhe much greater development of limb and fri-nc before he can successfully compete with the shire-horse for the heavy work leqnired in such business centres as Liverpool aad M utchester, where individual Dulk and power la indispensibly necessary to overcome the enormous weight to be moved. " That there exists at the prcont time a demand for massive horses in Scotland, us testified by the fact thai; a long stiing oi high-class shire geldings were purchosea at an English fair last week by a well-3inowi owner of Clydesdale stallion?. "The English cart-horse or the fclrire-lioit-'e until quite recently, the breed of (he old English draught-horse has been legatee l , except by a few persons who knew him undei the title of the title of the " Shire "-horse 1 3 a nondescript animal v»hich could be bred by crossing any description of farm-horses, and consequently it was believed that he did nut possess the least claim to purity of blood. That such is not the fact is now more generally recognised, and although the strongest admirers of the breed will not assert that all animals admitted into the studbook of the English Cart-horse Society as pedigree stock, are of absolutely puie eart-horae lineage, there are breeders in rnanv parts of England who, together with their ance a toi -, have maintained for many successive concretions their studs of brood mares ia conditions of very great purity, and almost cveiy stallion of note can be traced back in si diicct line of ancestry. The improvements in the Shire-horse of to-day, from his r/iogenitor of forty years ago, have been mainly towards ? more shapely and elegant form, whilst the efforts made to improve the Clydesdale have been to increase his bulk and to develop hp-"r and bone, features which arc the hcieditanj qualities of the Shire-hoiie. It* is on this recount that I regard the establishment of tho Clydesdale Stud-book (by the lestriclion n places upon the introduction of exkanro'it blood), as a most serious detriment to the future of that breed, considered as amraah of heavy draft, for as there i 3 nothing moie honest and true than the natural laws of inheritance, I believe that without re-infusion of Shire-horse blood into the Scotch hor^e, the latter must gradually, in the course of a few generations, revert to the form of his original prototype, by deterioration in bone, hair, and size. " The want of, or rather the little known distinctive title of the old English horse, Las unquestionably discounted his value with uninitiatpd breeders and buyers for expoit, for the simple reason that the condition was forced upon them that an unnamed animal could not possibly be as purely bred aa a race that for centurips had possessed a recognised title, but the establishment of the English Cart-horse Society, in 1878, and the publication of its stud-books has shown that the Shire-horse can claim at least an equally unsullied pedigree as his northern competitor. "For further and more detailed description and qualifications of the English horse, I refer you to the volumes of the stud-book, and to a pamphlet by Mr. F. Street, and one by myself upon the English horse. " The Perchehon Horsi..— 'The Percheron stallions I have seen (which may bepiesumed to be the best specimens of their kind, as they were sent over here to be exhibited when the Koyal Show was held at Kilburn), tno breed possesses no qualifications whatever entitling them to rank as heavy draft-horses. They are much inferior to the Suffolk, and would be useless to draw the heavy loads in English towns. " The Belgian Horse. — Some yeais ago, when the price of draught-horses in this country rose to an extraordinary height, a large number of Belgian and German horses were imported. In all respects they are inferior to the Shire and Clydesdale; as a rule, their feet are soft and weak, and being deficient in Btamina, they are unsatisfactory patients when attacked with severe inflammatory disease. "The preceding remarks will have fore shadowed which class the horse is, in my judgment, the one best calculated to pro-create a breed suited for the purposes of heavy draught, from smaller and lighter built mares. " The Percheron and Suffolk must be entirely eliminated from consideration, as it would be unfortunate for the Dominion if the I services of such sires as the best of these breeds can produce were encouraged ; the certain result would be that the country would possess a race of nondescript creatures, unfitted lor heavy draught, and but ill-adapted {or light harness purposes.

" Between the remaining breeds, the English (or Bhire-horsf) and uhe Clyde3dale, the balance, in my opinion, is entirely in favor of the foimer. " I'Vestlv, because the size and bone of the avoii'ge English horse are superior to the impiovecl Clydetdalo. " Secondly, because there is presumptive evidence (au I Itavo attempted shortly to show) that the increased frame and bone of the improved Clydesdale is due to infuaions of Shiiehoise blood. " Third'y, and chiefly, bscau^a the orignal type of the Clydesdale being of muoh lighter build than the existing race, the tendency of their progeny to reveifc to the original form will not only be well marked, but when crossed with umres deficient in bone, the degeneration will be rapid. On the other hand, it will not be the same as regards the English hoisc, inasmuch as hi 3 piototype was even rougher and more ponderous than existing specimens of the bieed. •' I am fully per&uacWl that there is a wide and lemunerative field open to those farmers in rhe Dominion of Canada who will use sires of the right class, and conduct their horseraising enterprise with judgment, anrt in accordance with the best piinciples of breeding and 1 wring, for notwithstanding the existence of every encouragement ia this country for the production of heavy dray-horses, good animal 1 - 1 of the kind are exceedingly sc .iu\ i«nd command very high prices, and we are alive to the iacl that ia the immediate future our over-increasing demands must be supplied by impouatioiih iioai abioad."' yiv. T. Lloyd willed :— "In reply to your inquuy respecting I'ereheion hor&c <, I can only bay that I consider then 1 , in point of stamina and quality, and a a compaicd with the Irish and English biceds ot hcu.-^s of all classes, of a very inferior cnaicicta. " To show tho estimation in which the two breeds ot hoifces are held, and a3 an endoisenieat and confirmation ot my opinion, it to only neccs-ary to bay that amongst the vciy laigcst buyexri at our hoive fails, sales, and lepositoiics, aie I'ieneii and Geimau agents, who all the year round are engaged in selecting the best sires and brood mares for the pni pose of developing in the horses of iheir own country Hip essential requisites of stamina and quality which they lack. " I should be extifmoly tovy to lejru thai the Canadian bleeders, who nave the foundation of one of the hardiest and bebt strain j of hoides in the wold, had fallen into auch a sunou; and, in v>y mind, palpablo ciror a.s to peimu these soit-heaiied, ill-foimed Percheion3 to be iinpoited and p iLned oit upon them. You have at ptcsent, n.4 sires, our EogJibh arul Jush bioeds of horbes, endowed in an einuieni. degree with quality, bone, mnccle, and enduiancc; but if Ihe mistake is mads of uos^ir-g that breed with the Poiche10'- 1 - the til can v.'ill b9 greatly deterioiated. hnd allemaiJ's wlipn tin 1 mistake becomes appa:r-nt, it will take many years to eliminate the bid qu ihties intioducod. "Diving the la3fc 20 \ears, I hive always hscl under my uupei vision fiom 1 000 to 2,000 hoises engE'gyd in ', aiions occupations, and I end lay son (T. E. J. Lloyd, M110.V.5., Eng.) weie Tuiongst the first to import, in anything like large numbers, Canadian lioic'Cr for sen»j.'til purposes, and these have givca such great Mithf action that I feel cure thai i' molitaLlc horse trade between the Dominion and England will eventually spiing up, ]T ouiy good sn? 1 -! aie used. "The lntioduaiion of P^reherons would mm any charices theie mfiy be. The Canadian hoi-x-' \s«o fcflecled by my son, and he had been schooled by my&df, who had lived m the old coaciiibg days, conducted a k 4 rge hoise-deale. -' rcpositoiy, impoited hoises from lieland anil (he continent, t<nd bought them at Hie prinop.il fail a in England, supplied huntei.i to the Queen, and othei large hunting establishments, which occupation, and Jioli a century's experience, give n^e title to cipre<- j an opinion on this important question. Should jou or any other Canadian geutilemnn e'esu^, any iuifher information on this hubjeef, iti of very gre?t interest to int. I shi'll bo happy to supply it." — Live Siocl, Jivnhal.