by it: The weevil, bark-beetle, wheat-fly, maggots, cocci, aphides, earwigs, spiders, ants, etc. It is evident that not only the perfectly developed insects are destroyed, but also the larva, which in some cases do greater injury than the insects themselves. Large depots where military stores or navy supplies are kept, and especially extensive bakeries, may use the powder with great advantage for the destruction of weevils, midges, crickets, cockroaches, etc., the great plagues of those establishments. The powder is equally efficacious in destroying insects which are a constant source of annoyance to the inhabitants of cities and the country. Gnats and mosquitoes are banished; bugs, fleas, and flies disappear from houses under its influence.

The powder of the Pyrethrum applied to furs, feathers, woolens, objects of natural history and botanical herbariums, acts also as a complete protection against insect ravages, while as regards the human subject it is perfectly innocuous. In using the powder, says M. Willemot, it must be applied carefully and in sufficient quantity, otherwise the result will be unsatisfaotory, especially if used against some of the hardy or very resisting species of insects. Occasionally the powder, by being exposed to the air or moisture, will have lost its destructive properties, so as to render the result doubtful and wholly inefficient; at others the result has been unsatisfactory, because the most favorable moment for the operation has been overlooked. A rainy or wet day, for instance, always lessens the destruc tive efficacy, because the powder, containing a very volatile essential oil, renders the conservation of this principle extremely difficult.

Of all the methods for applying the powder to plants attacked by insects, including the vine, the bellows will best accomplish the object. As there is only a small quantity of powder thrown at once, the loss will be very small, whilst in any other way a good deal of it will fall upon the ground The powder should be directly applied to the parts operated on, and with care and precaution it may be made to penetrate into the most inaccessible parts of a plant. If, for instance, a plant has been attacked by plant lice, which are often hidden or masked by thick foliage, it will become neces sary to turn aside this foliage, so as to have the insects exposed, and the powder directly brought into contact with them.

In all cases these operations should take place on a warm day, the morning being always preferable. A slight moisture arising from the morning dew will make the powder more easily adhere to the spots where it is applied, and maintain its properties long enough to cause the death of the insects. The insufflation should be renewed several times according to the nature and number of insects to be destroyed. The first operation generally stupefies them, while at the second or third application they lose their strength, fall to the ground, and die sooner or later.

M. Willemot also states, that by mixing the Pyrethrum powder with wheat, in the proportion of two ounces to two or three bushels previous to sowing the grain, the ravages of the wheat midge may be entirely prevented.

THE ENGLISH HUNTER AND ROADSTER HORSES.

The English Hunter we deem the best horse for general purposes in England-and is more like our best horses for the road, than any otherThe hunter is not a distinct breed, but results from a judicious crossing of breeds, with equally judicious management in rearing.-An excellent prize essay, read before the royal agricultural society of England, is well worthy of attention here, as in great Britain, and it will benefit the American farmer by a careful attention to it.

BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND ROADSTERS.

BY J. GAMGEE, R. A. SOCIETY JOURNAL, VOLUME 24.

The subject to be treated of in this essay is one which will undoubtedly repay the agriculturist for any amount of attention and skill which he may devote to it.

In aiming to produce a horse of that stamp which will realise the highest price for hunting purposes, the breeder is on the safest way to exclude the chances of failure; because the animal which just misses the character of the first class hunter is of a quality which is available for the greatest variety of purposes, either for saddle or harness or for recruiting the military depots of the nation with the horses best suited for the service.

The subject requires to be considered in its economical as well as in its scientific and practical aspects. No amount of foresight will enable the breeder of hunters to obtain his highest aim with more than a fair proportion of his produce. In order, therefore, that a profit may be realised, the average horse must pay its expenses, those of a superior quality will then leave a good surplus gain, of which part will be required to cover, deficiencies arising in a few inferior lots. This law of compensation applies to the breeding of horses of all classes; but its range becomes more extended as the stock rises in the scale of value; so that in breeding for the turf, where the real prizes, when secured, run very high, the failures-weeds, as they are called-are most numerous ⇓d most unremunerative. Therefore, the more generally useful the class of horse is which the breeder aims to produce, the less will be his risk, and the greater the probability of profit if proper means are employed. Where breeding is conducted on this principle, the type or model specially sought after is that of the noble weight carrying hunter.

To define what is understood by the term hunter, it is necessary, to go somewhat at large into the character of English horses, the different breeds or classes into which they are divided, and also into the history and progress of the race. The hunter has at no time constituted a distinct breed; in that respect he differs essentially from the pure blood-horse, whose genealogy

has alone obtained a reliable record. The long established renown of the English and Irish hunter has depended and must depend on the judicious crossing of breeds, with equally judicious management in their rearing, as well as on the judicious development of the breeds thus blended together. That some thoroughbred horses make clever, nay, the best, of hunters, does not alter the proposition just laid down, because they form exceptional specimens.

The hunter is required to possess power, speed, endurance in combination, to fit him for the stiff country he may have to cross, and for the high weight he will have to carry; but few thoroughbred horses can be found. capable of fulfilling these requirements, and still fewer of these are generally available for the purpose, since the turf and the stud monopolise such choice specimens. If there be some gentlemen who, having no predilection for the turf or for breeding, prize good hunters so highly that they secure a few thoroughbred colts of the highest stamp for this object, still this source of supply is limited, uncertain, very costly, and prejudicial to the public interests.

If the whole number of blood stock bred in England, in any given year, were looked over when yearlings by good judges, less than ten per cent. of them would probably be pronounced likely to make hunters able to carry fourteen stone; and if it were possible that a few of the most powerful of these could be secured for the purpose and converted into geldings, as in most cases would be necessary, our supply of hunters would be but little extended, whilst the process would sap the very foundation of our breeding establishments.

If only ten of the best looking stout yearlings were annually picked out, amongst them would be comprised those of the 'Stockwell' and 'Voltiguer' class, and thus the standard of the horses to which breeders must turn for purity and stoutness would at once be lowered. All such exceptionally good horses as are here contemplated, whether bred or bought, would cost the owner probably £1000 apiece before they reached the age, or had passed through the changes and ordeals necessary to make the hunter. Although the training stable may readily mount the light weight, or even furnish brilliant chargers for the army, it is only by forethought and good management applied to cross-breeding that men of heavy weight can be adequately supplied with hunters. Size, substance, and power, with sufficient speed, may thus be secured, whilst in symmetry nothing, perhaps, may be wanting.

The history of the English hunter goes further back than that of fox-hunting. The various accounts given of the Roman conquest of Britain inform us that even then, England furnished good horses, and that, some 1500 years before we have any authentic record of the importation of Eastern blood. for the improvement of the native breed. We have had, then, an old English race of horses, the history of which is lost in the distance of time; and from that stock, no doubt, the stamina and peculiar character of the English hunter of all times has been in a great measure derived. Moreover, if we take into account the fact that the natives of Britain have always been skilled in and pre-eminently fond of the chase, we may rea

sonably infer that they cherished and prized horses suited for that purpose when hunting was a national service no less than a sport and pastime. It may be true that men in our own time take to themselves too exclusively the credit of attention to improvement in horse breeding. The answers which history, when impartially studied, gives to our inquiries, often tell two ways, and with a benefit received, exhibits an attendant drawback. When the land is placed under cultivation, and the animals that feed on it are brought under the control of man, their condition is improved or made worse, according as the artificial system has been well carried out that is, with the consciousness that every infringement on nature's laws by man, calls for compensating art and labor to devise and supply means which may counteract the evils arising therefrom-or the reverse has been the case.

When people, taking a contracted view, contrast the English horse of the present day with the poor, rough, uncared for creature they imagine he must have been in ancient times, they support their argument by reference to the little animals still found in some parts of the kingdom, the New Foresters, the ponies of Wales, and of the Shetland Isles. But in this they totally overlook the influence which a great change in their destiny has exerted. Unlike the larger and nobler horse, when he was free, the modern forester and mountain pony has been driven from the fertile plain, and doomed to live on sandy and boggy wastes or to share with the goat, the deer, and little sheep, the scanty vegetation of the mountain. Though such has been their lot for centuries, yet how perfect the form of many of them! how sound their constitutions and limbs! and how wonderfully their size has become adapted to their subsistence on scanty provender, whilst exposed to all kinds of weather!

The climate, soil, and topography of Britain were, it is reasonable to believe, as peculiarly congenial to the horse in early, as they are known to be in modern times; hence the superiority of English horses over those of most other countries. With extensive tracts of natural pasturage, large forests, mountain and dale alternating, the horses of olden time found abundance of food, with shelter and shade to afford protection in all seasons. Horses so situated, we know, migrate in numbers together from mountain to valley, and vice versa, as the seasons change and as the requirements of food and variations of temperature prompt their instincts. The old stock of English horses must have received periodical additions at various epochs in ancient times, from Continental nations. We are especially informed that some four thousand cavalry constituted part of the army with which Julius Cæsar invaded Britain; and the Norman and other invaders, besides the Romans, naturally brought their horses with them. Under the influences of a soil and climate congenial to his nature, it may be inferred that the imported horse improved by the change, and that fresh importations of stock wrought progressive changes in the whole race, and from these combined influences the characteristic stoutness and other special qualities of the English horse were established.

We have, however, to search far down the history of time before we find any distinct record of the importations of horses from the Eastern nations and the south of Europe. Early in the 17th century, King James

I. bought of Mr. Markham, an Arabian horse, imported from the east by the latter. This horse is reported to have been the first of that breed ever seen in England, but it would be hard to establish the truth of this assertion. Since Britain long continued to be a dependency of Rome, herself the mistress of the whole civilized world, so that lines of communication were constantly open from east to west, and especially traversed by the armies of the Empire, is it not probable that Roman officers availed themselves of opportunities of possessing Eastern horses, and that some of these accompanied them into the far West? To show that the English horse was of no mean character, when the Arabian above alluded to was brought over, I will quote the authority of one who was generally reputed the best judge of horses of that time. The Duke of Newcastle, speaking from his own knowledge, "describes the Arabian which was imported and sold by Mr. Markham to the King, to have been of a bay color, a little horse, and no rarity of shape." (Beranger.) The value to be attached to the above quotation is the evidence it affords of the relative high standard of the English horse of the time.

In devising means to establish the best possible stamp of hunters, our wisest course is to take systematically into consideration the prevailing defects in the breeding of the several distinct classes of horses from which the supply is derived, more especially those classes whence the most powerful and active mares would come. Disregard for the equilibrium to be kept up amongst these several classes has been a potent cause of the falling off in the number of good hunters, of late years. During the progress of descent through successive generations, there are always agencies in operation which tend to make horses become lighter and lose stamina, unless rational management keeps the stock strong and pure. Simple neglect produces deterioration, especially if it leads to the use of a bad stallion. Bad blood horses have been too much used, and mares of their stock too often retained to supply the places of their dams and grandams, while the sale of the latter has often proved a permanent loss both to the breeder and to the district to which they belong. With the increased demand for exportation of the finest mares, the difficulty increases of supplying their places, and even producing stallions of their class; indeed, the course of events leads rather to total dispersion than to mere deterioration or numerical scarcity. Though I submit that good blood-stallions are alone relia ble for the production of hunters, and that the mares should also be closely up to the required standard for speed, and whilst power and stamina should form the leading features in their character, I am in no way inclined to dogmatise on the exact amount of pure blood which affords the best promise of combining all the essentials in the clever hunt.

The meaning which these words "half-bred" and "three parts bred" com-, monly convey, whether used technically or literally, is most inexact and vague. We may instance "The Lawyer," a horse still in training, which has proved himself to be one amongst the very best horses of his year; yet he is called a half-bred horse, though he has descended from the choicest of blood-sires for six or more generations, and on the dam's side, to the re motest point to which the pedigree can be traced. The first ancestress named is the renowned "Jenny Horner," considered the best cocktail of