QUALITY OF NEW ZEALAND LIFE STOCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2207, 18 June 1896, Page 4

QUALITY OF NEW ZEALAND LIFE STOCK.

No. 2.-HORSES. . In the official returns for the past year the number of entire horses available for service at stud is shown to have been 2955, exclusive of pony stallions under 14hds. The total number of mares, exclusive of pony mures, was 97,369, not counting fillies under two years old or under age for breeding purposes ; and accordingly it appears that the proportion of entire horses to mares was 1 to 33 —a deplorable disproportion,, even suppu&ing all of the latter had been pnt to bread. The relative numbers of the males and females of the breeds specified are as follows :— Thoroughbred— sires, 668 ; mares, 2446 ; mares in foal, 1140. Hunter and hackney— sires, 301 ; mare;, 9277 ; mares in foal, 1820. Carriage and trotting— sires, 283 ; mares, 5231 ; mares in foal, 618. Light ordinary— sires, 655 ; mares, 32,564 ; mares in foal, 7170. Draught— sires, .1048 ; mares, 31,751 ; mares in foal, 5352. The figures show a total of only 16,100 marei in foal last season, as against 2955 entires available for stud duties, or about 11 brood mares to two stallions.

It may fairly be assumed that of the thoroughbred entires classified as " stud," onethird the number are restricted to limited services or are still used for racing ; but even with the deduction of, say, 200 thoroughbreds not kept entirely for stud purposes from the total of 2955 of all sorts, it murt be very obvious that the colony is deplorably overstocked with stallions. Unfortunately the consequent mischief ia of a permanent character. Mare than 90 per cent, of the entire horses with which the country is overrun are weedy, worthless, and frequently unsound brutes, travelled about tor what they can earn for unscrupulous owners. "The terms asked are a littla above those charged for the local village boar ; indeed, there is no fixed fee, the owner of the sire taking what he oan get." The results are a matter of common knowledge.in this part of the colony at least — the ttsady deterioration of the general horeo stock and a growing scarcity of sound; useful animals. For years the fact has been patent that a truly-bred, sound, high-class horse has not had a chance against the weedy tramps travelled around, though earning little more than daily food for their leaders and fodder for themselves, "Fenny wise, pound foolish" farmers have been enoouraged to put virtually worthless mares to these cheap stallions, and have had their annual returns of wretohed foaJf, which.,, growing an to coibUoo d, bare been ow

less as farm' drudges, and worth in an open market about the value of their hides'. •

In reference to the evil consequences of employing the services of inferior, untcoredifced flires—" poaohers " they are called in the North of England— the Live Stook Journal writes :-i " The Vagranoy Act causes us to put beggar! off the road as a nuisance and special annoyance, leading one to think of robbed orchards and atackjards in names. Not one of thesß _; vagrant bipeds does one-thir<l of the mischief which one of the«e unsound, weedy stallionp does in the country it passes through, and ua« fortunately the mischief is a lasting one. Speak* ing from experience, the trail of the serpent • stallion can bs traoked every mile for years aftei be has left a particular part of the country, and has under a changed name — for they have as many aliases as a convicted pickpocFeT—provo'cated his infirmities in another country which was, iv dealers' parlance, ' fairly clean.' "We prosecute the poor man who works jh unfit horse and whose excuse may bs the making of a living for his wife and family and the keepi ing together of his fireside surroundings, and we let; a mercenary man who sows the seeds of all sorts of ' unfitnees '.go free. On the face of it there cannot -be much fairnees or wisdom in this." The remedy suggested is to deny access ; to the highways of horses not accredited as to soundness. A man might keep an entire of hi* own with a view of serving his own' and bis t neighbours' mares, even should he be a worth:- ** leas brute ; but it is argued that if det»!ecl ~ access to the highways the animal would •QOHjbe.\ boycotted. Such a measure ' would be only : half-hearted, and in the colony would, fail to accomplish the object which all skilled horn- . I breeders appreciate — the effucemerit of *• unsound, inferior stallions. Cifncultiee, no doubfc, confront those who propose to legislate in this direction ; but, however objectionable legislation may be (as has been assumed by " liberty of the subject" preaohers) in this matter, ib Is now obviouily secesiary that measures be adopted for the prevention of the farmers' self- ' destruction from a commercial point of view. ' It b.p.B been repeatedly urged in these columns that no unsound stallion should be permitted to be used for stnd purposes. The suggestion w»s opposed from the first by the thoughtlesi and ill-informed, who, without knowing It, virtually advocated free trade in animal diseases. In the breeding of domesticated animals it, is well known that if one or other of the parents i$ defective the produce will inherit the defects of the parents, and the probability is that the particular defeot will be repeated more or less - in the offspring. It" is equally true that the influence of the sire i» often so great as to overcome that of Be defective female ; but if he is unsound his potency is deplorably mischievous, " for he will transmit his defects to the progeny of the numerous mares put to him eaoh season of the many he i* kept at the stud. Agftin, a tax on stallions was suggested as a matins of averting depreciation iv the quality of our horse by the use of inferior sires. It was) pointed oat that there was virtually s premium offered for an increase of these and the exclusion of high-class horses by the patronage of the former at low fees by thoughtletsfarmeri. As was anticipated, the number of stallions has - increased Beyond boandf ", and the standard of ■quality of the general horse stock throughout -. Ottgo and Southland, once famous for draught ' horaei, has been at markedly lowered. WeU- ~ known breeders were compelled to relinquish '■ the .business because it involved an investment of considerable " capital in stallions whose sec- ' vices ceased tt b* in request. ■ It is- fame there ; are still 1048 draught entires in the colony, but beyond, perhapt, a acore of these, geldings from * lOyrs to ISjis old may be seen afc work daily in waggon, lorry, or dray the superior* of quite a thousand at the stud. And so it is with other sorts. There, are 301 hunter and hackney, 283 carriage and trotting-, and 6% light ordinary stud entires. The last-named are aptly classified, for they are ordinary, bat of the two preceding sorts, few are truly bred, and many are positively hurtful to the horse-breeding interests. . '