HORSE BREEDING IN FRANCE.

Western Star, Issue 374, 21 August 1880, Page 3 (Supplement)

HORSE BREEDING IN FRANCE.

A correspondent writes It is interesting to note how much the French Government does in the way of encouraging the breeding of horses,: and, from some statistics which have just been published, :it appears that in the Course of the past season a sum of more than L 50,000 was given by the State and by the local authorities to the flat races, steeplechases, and trotting races held throughout France, This constitutes but a very small part of i the money annually spent by the States and by the different • departmentsj for subsidies are granted to the riding-schools and training-schools, premiums awarded to the sires and mares which come under the inspection of the Government officials, and which are approved of by them, and thoroughly sound sires provided at the Government expense. Thus, for instance, in the course of the past year 5754 brood mares divided premiums worth nearly L 32.000, and 1059 sires received close upon L 22.000, of which sum three-fifths went to half-bred horses, the remainder being divided in about equal proportions between thoroughbreds and heavy draught horses. During the same period the Government laid out LBO.OOOO in the purchase of sires, LB4OO having been spent in England, where three thoroughbred and ten half-bred sires were purchased. A commissioner is sent to Turkey every year to buy Arab stallions for mating with French mares, and last year a sura of L 3600 was spent in purchasing twenty-six. At the present time the Government owns two thousand stallions, distributed over twenty-two depots, the most important of which are Tarbes, St. Lo, Le Pen, Perpignan, Pau. Cluny. Lamballe, and Pompadour, at whioh latter establishment are also kept 120 thoroughbred and Arab mares. The Government ought, therefore, to have no difficulty in purchasing as many horses as they require for army purposes; but it is said that the Ministry of War 'will not pay a price sufficient to remunerate breeders, who prefer, therefore, to sell their horses for export to other countries. There is evidently some truth in this, for several journals urge as the sole objection against the proposal to mount infantry captains the impossibility of procurthe horses which would be required without going out of the country for them. The difficulty would, of course, be got over if the Ministry of War would raise the maximum, and this it will probably be compelled to do. That the influence of the State in encouraging horse breeding has not been altogether without effect may be gathered from the significant statement that three times within the last seven years a French sportsman has been first on the list of successful owners of racehorses in England, and that since the beginning of the present season more than L 32.000 have either been taken out of this country by horses bred in France and belonging to Frenchmen, or bred in France and now the property of Englishmen.—Lyttleton I Times. j