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MELBOURNE STUD. Ef S. B. Weems, the well-known turf correspondent, recently made a visit to Col. W. S. Barnes stud at Lexington, Ey., and, among other things, had this to ay: "I visited Col. W. 8. Barnes Melbourne B.fnii a "day or two ago, in comany with Ma.nagdr Mills, and found the stock all in good health and condition. Colonel Barnes now has 115 mares. Melbourne Farm is not ample enough to accommodate all his stock, and a portion of the mares and weanlings are boarded on other farms in the vicinity of Lexington. I saw most of the weanlings there are .fifty-seven of them, all told, thirty-five of them colts. They are a well grown lot, superior, I should say, to any previous crop I have seen at Melbourne, and that means they quite average up to the best, youngsters in Kentucky. This promising outlook is especially gratifying, for Colonel Barnes met with a severe loss last summer when his consignment of yearlings to the New York market, twenty-nine in number, was wrecked by the Long Island railroad in transit to Sheepshead Bay, and all of them so badly injured that Colonel Barnes refused to accept them and entered suit for damages. Thoylwere finally sold at an average of something over 00, as against the average of ,1C0 the Melbourne youngsters brought the preceding year. "Colonel Barnes is a man of ideas and he breeds on theories, many of them peculiarly his own. He believes, for example, that mares do better when herded in small lots, which is one of .his reasons for separating hiB mares and keeping them on different farms. Few men in the business are better posted on bloodlines. In consequence, his!1 collection of mares represents some very choice breeding. The stallions at Melbourne are Rainbow, Prince of Monaco, St. Julien, Jim Gore and Handspring. The latter was brought over to Melbourne from Mr. Keenes farm last spring, as Mr. Dwyer, his owner, thought he would have a better chance at Melbourne, Mr. Keene preferring to breed mostly to his own horses. Another reason was that Colonel Barnes is greatly impressed with the possibilities of Handspring as a sire, and was anxious to have the horse. He bred him last spring to the unusual number of fifty-three mares, including several of his own and one, of Mr. Dwyers, Madrid. Handspring is stouter and heavier than I have ever seen him. He gets plenty of exercise, and thrives under
