The Select Committee asked for by the Earl of Roseberry
to inquire about the supply of horses in the United Kingdom has presented its Report. The Committee refuse to go into the racing question; they do not desire to propose any scheme for Army remounts ; they are not disposed to recommend the formation of studs, and they confine themselves altogether to the public supply and demand. Hunters are dear, because so many people want them ; roadsters are dear, because they are not bred ; but there has been a great falling-off in agricultural horses. In two years the number in England has fallen from 977,707 to 962,548, and in Ireland the decrease has been greater. They do not, however, exactly see how to remedy the decrease, except by abolishing any tax operating against breeding, as every carriage or cart tax does. The plain truth seems to be that it pays better to breed bullocks than cart-horses, and until the price of the latter rises, breeders will be few and unenergetie. That is not much result from a Committee which declines to quote reports on foreign horses because they would cost so much. Why, a trade in horses established with one country, say Hungary, or South America, or the Cape—where on demand the farmers could breed good horses by the million—would be worth the cost of printing the reports ten thousand times over.
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