THE SUFFOLK PUNCH.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2795, 12 June 1890, Page 3

THE SUFFOLK PUNCH.

In thiri issup appears a letter from a correspondent, "Plough boy," referring to tho paper on "Horse-breeding," read by Mr Shepherd on Saturday List before the members of the Hamilton Branch of the Waikato Farmers' Club. In his letter " Ploughboy " holds. the breed known as the Suffolk Punch in high estimation, and as our correspondent can claim t'i have an extended experience on the subject, a short description of this breed of horses will be read with interest at this time :— The Suffolk is another breed very mnch esteemed in its own district,, and seldom found out of it, except on fancy farms; but there is a steady demand for Suffolk stallions of a good chestnut colour for exportation to the Continent. According to popular notions, the Suffolk is always chestnut of one of five different shades. Mr Lonewood, who read a paper on this breed of horses before the Stowmarket Club in 1872, mentioned five different shades, viz., dark chestnut, dark red, bright chestnut, silver-beamed, and light chestnut. But, according to the same authority, there are in the country a good many teams of bay Suffolks. Those who breed for sale aro particular about purity of colour, and preserve it by the well-known expedient of keeping nothing but chestnut horses on the breeding-farm. The following is a description of the Suffolk Punch breed, as they were before the development of Agricultural Societies had established competition and comparison between cart-stallions in every arable country in the kingdom '' They are generally about 15 hands high, of a remarkably short and compact maker thiri! legs, bony, and thitf shoulders loaded with flesh. Their colour is often of light sorrel, which is as much marked in some distant part of the kingdom as their form. They are not made to indulge the rapid impatience of this posting generation, but for draught they are perhaps as trarivailed as for their gentle and tractable temper; and to exhibit proofs of their great power, drawing matches are sometimes made, and the proprietors are as anxious for the success of their respective horses as those can be whose racers aspire to the plates at Newmarket." The Suffolk Mercury, 22nd June, 1724, thus advertises the first match that took place" On Thursday, 19th July, 1724, there will be a drawing at Ixworth Pickarel, for a piece of plate of 45s value ; and they that will bring five horses or mares may put in for it; and they that draw twenty the best and fairest pulls, with their reins up. and then, they that carry the greatest weight over the blocks, with fewest lifts and fewest pulls, shall have the said plate; by such judges as the masters of theteams shall choose. You aro to meet at twelve o'clock and put in your gacnas (or «ls« to b* cUbirrad trow dr&rciutf

for it), and subscribe half-a-crown a piece to be paid to the second beat team." QSir Thomas Grey Cullum, in a note to the second edition of his brother St. John's work, adds: "The trial is made with a waggon load with Band, tho wheels sunk a little in the ground, with blocks of wood laid before them to increase the difficulty. The first efforts are'.made with the; reins fastened as visual to theii' collars, but the animals cannot, when so confined, put on their full strength; the reins are therefore afterwards thrown loose on their necks, " when they can exert their utmost powers, which they usually do by falling on their knees, and drawing in that attitude. That they may not break their knees by this operation, the area on which they draw is strewn with soft sand." .... , "In the Suffolk Agricultural Report, 1791, page 41, allusion is made to these competitive trials of strength; "Amongst the great farmers in'the Sandlinga south of Woodbridge and Oxford, there was forty years ago a considerable _ spirit of breeding and drawing team against team for large sums of money. Mr Mays, of Damshot Dock, was said to have drawn fifteen horses for 1,500 guineas." Suckling, in his work on the History, and Antiquities'of the County of Suffolk, alludes to' the Punches- 1 as u .docile? race, .unrivalled, at what is provincially called "a dead, pull." In describing them, he says, "They aro.middle-sized, very short made, and though low in the forehead, aro active in their paces, and on the lighter lands of the country will draw a plough at the rate of three miles an hour." At one time Suffolk Punch mares wero used to breed from, crossed with thoroughbred sires, with! the View !of producing hunters and carriage - horses. But the quality and pace required-;, in the_ present time 'will not admit of iny admixture of carty blood, although the Suffolk, which trots with empty carts from the hay-field, would occasionally afford some happy hiis.