Related article: for the purpose, and has asked the Hunters Improvement Society to throw its agis over it. Yet it needs but a few practical tests to show how little chance there is of such Doxazosin Mesylate 4mg a scheme being adopted, or, indeed, that it is desirable. It would require a tremendous out- lay in the first instance to acquire land capable of carrying from twelve to twenty thousand Doxazosin Mesylate Tablets horses, and this would be below the number required for breeding and rearing purposes. The pastures would soon wear out and require changing, and the whole scheme would be so gigantic, as well as so averse from our policy as a nation, which is essentially one of encouraging voluntary effort, that we feel sure no Government of the present day would be bold enough to advocate it. We must turn, therefore, to the more economical and constitu- tional ways that unfold themselves in the encouragement of local and voluntary efiforts, spread as widely as possible over our agricultural and pastoral districts. How is this to be done ? The War Office has approached the council of the Hunters Improvement Society with the view of receiving sug- gestions. Its first idea seems to have been to offer prizes at such local shows as the H. I. Society might name for horses of this description. Horse - show prizes are all very well in their way, but at all events in the eyes of the council of the H. I, Society this would be but a very small and inefficient means to the end in view. Horse showing has be- come a science in itself, and not a fiftieth part of the people likely to be brought into such a breed- ing scheme would trouble to compete for these prizes, or thus be induced to breed at all. No. The War Office should, in the opinion of the H. I. Society, come into more direct contact with our home breeders than this. The principle of offering pre- miums to thoroughbred sires through the medium of the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding has now been in working order for many years, and has done good, only it is not sufficiently cosmopolitan. What are twenty- nine stallions spread over the whole of England, Wales and Scotland, endowed with an annual premium of;^i5o? It is a mere fiea-bite as a nucleus to national hunter-breeding, a practice which is at present admitted not to be a remunerative one as a general rule. A committee of the H. I. Society has lately been engaged in sifting the suggestions made to it by many of its members, and has come to the conclusion that there is a way by which much might be done, if only the Government and the War Office 1900.] HOW ARE WB TO BRBED CAVALRY HORSBS ? 171 will advance an important step to meet them in this matter. In the first place, I consider that the Government should strengthen the hands of the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding by placing in their hands suffi- cient funds to send forth annually sixty, or perhaps one hundred, thoroughbred sound sires at ;^200 each, tenable for two years, pro- vided a certificate of continued soundness was produced at the commencement of the second year. It should be a condition of such premiums that each h9rse should serve, say, forty mares each year gratis, provided that every such mare was registered, and her produce at three years old should be subject to pre- emption by the Government at £35y such produce to be taken to certain fairs chosen in every district, where the Government buyers should be present. As a further means towards the same end the Government should lend for breeding purposes their cast-ofF mares free from hereditary diseases to breeders under this registration scheme, with the same right of pre-emption as suggested above. Thus some thousands of young horses would be provided for Ic Doxazosin Mesylate army purposes in the home market, and their breeders be fairly remunerated. Besides which their purchase money would be circulated in this country, instead of abroad, and the agricultural interest would benefit. This at first sight may seem plain sailing enough, because the annual sum to subsidize these Queen*s premium horses is not by any means a large one, when compared with the momentous question of raising the number and standard of our cavalry and artillery horses, and thus render- ing us Doxazosin Mesylate 4 Mg to a certain extent inde- pendent of foreign purchasing, at all events Doxazosin Mesylate 8 Mg in times of peace ; but we find ourselves, nevertheless, in a difficulty because the Govern- ment at present shake their heads at our suggestion of buying horses at three years old, and unless this can be done our scheme falls to the ground, inasmuch as farmers could not be expected to keep young horses for a longer period than the autumn of their three- year-old career subject to the right of preemption we have sug- gested. It would be unremunera- tive to them to do so, and if this right of pre-emption were to end at three years old without any purchases having been made, the Government would Buy Doxazosin Mesylate find that at four years old the best horses had been sold, and gone into other hands. They would more often have to deal with the middle man at an enhanced price, or get an inferior article. Why, however, should the War Office decline to buy at three years old ? Because it appears to us that thus they could train horses for their purposes at that age much more thoroughly than by any other means. It would be easy to have depdts, where these young horses would be dealt with sys- tematically, and by the autumn of their four-year-old career would be fit to be drafted into their regular work. It is absurd to say that no horse is fit for cavalry work until he is five years old, be- cause so much depends upon the teaching he has had, which is equal to seasoning, and having been brought up to the trade, as it were, he settles down to it better and will stand it easier than the newcomer a year or two older. Besides which we should thus have our cavalry horses more uniform, and with Doxazosin Mesylate 2 Mg fewer casts-off. With all our increased space on Salisbury Plain I am sure that these depdts could be 172 BAILY S MAGAZINE. [Sbptbmbrk