NOTES ON HORSE-BREEDING.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2081, 3 January 1879, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTES ON HORSE-BREEDING.

A correspondent signing himself " Kaipahiki," Avntes to the "Auckland Weekly News'" as follows :—: — As so much has been written and said on the success of the late Auckland (.'attic Show, it may seem superfluous to make f utlier remarks, — aa the exhibitors of horses, cattle, sheep, and implements must have convinced every beholder of the fact that the New Zealand pioneers have, under such a salubrious climate, achieved, in a less number of years, a greater success in breaking and taming Nature's rugged virgin soil, and imparting to the same the ability to rear and feed to perfection such splendid specimens of cattle exhibited at Elleralie, than others of the colonies, or Great Britain could have done itself. If this impression has not been stamped on the mind of every beholder, then nothing but a miracle can do bo, or make them see that New Zealand is advancing tn rapid strides to lasting and increasing pros* perity. It may be easy to find fault, but itis generally disagreeable to do so. Yet I must crave pardon for assorting that tliere is a practice gaining ground in thia province which, if persevered in, will most assuredly cud in deteriorating in* size, strength, and stamina, the farmer's grandest slave, destroy our blood and other stock, and ruin our racing man. In the old country there are only two systems practised in breeding, styled the systematic and haphazard ones. The one objected to here may almost by termed a suicidal system, viz., the making uso of two and three-year colts as sires. The owner of a very superior draught colt, when lately in Auckland, was asked in my hearing if the colt was a sure foal-getter. He replied that he could prove that he was, as he hail got 40 foals last year (then of cdurse only a two-year-old). Now, can anything be more, short-sighted than breeding in this manner ? No amount of oat, eggs, isinglass, or cake, can keep up in a colt the supply of vital , spennatoza required for fruitful intercourse. Anyone who has paid the least attention to breeding ought to know that the horse i« not in its perfectidn, nor done growing until it has reached lix years, and ought never to be used for Btud purposes sooner. Nature cannot afford to part with any substance required to perfect the frame and organs of any animal with impunity, and to expect robust offspring from colts or fillies is a mere delusion. Exceptions there are to every rule, but if all the ancestors of the human race had been boys and girls of 12 or 14 years of age, would we ever have seen an Iron Duke, a Captain Barclay, «r a Tom Sayers? But Barnum might have picked up some scores of Tom Thumbs in every village. It is said that a sage member of some fraternity at home once rravely proposed that suicide should be added to the list of capital offences. Now, are not the followers of this game practising an offence againt their own capital, or on that of their friends T The greatest advocates of this can only urge that it brings money sooner to the owner of the colt. Grant this. But the question arises, will the money continue to now from this source ; and may not this early abuse cause the sire to become impotent at au early age, and then become nearly useless ': The too | early use of dams may not always, or often, cause sterility, yet it is the general belief in the old country that for temper and constitution the dam is to be almost relied on in transmitting these great qualities. But how can she bo safely trusted to do so if her own frame has been checked in its development by giving her own required substance to that of her faitus ? To strengthen these views, I will in my next give some authentic facts regarding the abuse of that celebrated English sire Melbourne ? and, for the consideration of racing men, will give some recollections of the extraordinary freaks of temper shewn by two celebrated racers in England — viz., CoEftaok and Yellow Jaok. ".. »