HOUSE BREEDING IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 783, 9 March 1905, Page 9

HOUSE BREEDING IN FRANCE.

The mouths of English horse-breeders must water, says a correspondent of the “Field,’’ when they read, if they ever do read, the annual report of M. ilornez, who has succeed;d M. Plazen as the administrator of the Haras in France. This embraces, of course, the 22 depots throughout the country, at which are kept the 30(>0 and odd stallions (thorough’reds, hac.u’eys, harness and cart stallhns) which the State pro ides at merely moderate fees for the use of breeders. M. Hornez states that the maximum of 3450 stallions, for which a measure recently passed bv the Chamber provided, has not yet been reached, as not n orc than 50 stallions wore to be purchased each year ; but on .January 1 last the total had attained 3211, so that in another five years or less the stallion depots will have th?ir full complement. M. Horn z states that these 3211 stallions (of which 217 are thoroughbreds, 340 Arabs, 2109 hackneys and other half-1 reds, and 515 heavy draught horses) were reinforced by 1461 approved stallions belonging to private breeders, and 250' authorised stallions; that is to s a y, stallions which the Government inspectors rais'd as sound, but did not altogether care a o:t ; and

that these different categories of stallions covered last year 262,305 mares, as against 250,000 in 1902, and 240,000 in 190'1. This is in striking contrast to the modest offer of 28 premiums of £l5O in England, which is all that the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding has at its disposal, hot but what the latter makes the best possible use of its limited income, and would, no doubt, be only too pleased if its resources were increased by some such fund as that of which the French Minister of Agriculture can avail himself, for, as M. Hornez goes cn to show in his report, the total amount spent in 1903 for prizes at shows, premiums to stallions and: thoroughbred mares, premiums to breeders, races, and other objects of a similar kind, was only a trifle short of £74,000. And this dues not include the I per cent, which is levied upon the takings of the pari-mutuel for the benefit of breeders. This sum varies, of course, according to the amount invested, but the total has for the last three years, been about £16’,000,000, and 1 per cent, on this is £lOO,OOO, with which a greet deal of good can, of course, be effected.