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BEST HORSE TOR MILITARY PURPOSES. The United States Major, who made the- cock-sure deelaratioii. based on his experience- in chasing Villa in the- Mexican mountains, that the thoroughbred horse had no place in a cavalry command, is making expiaunthnm now. and the explanations de not strengthen lis first laaumali statemeat, but only display a lack of know leelgc- of the history of raeing in hi- own country. His conte-ntiui tint the horses of a gene ration age we-re stouter and ssofU callable thai; the:-;.- of today be-c.iuse then much af tin- radag was at heats of Boasetiuaea as far as four miles i no more- than conjecture 011 the part of urn- wlio has quite evidently only a remote and in - direct knowledge of the racing eeaditioaa of to, ay. His sort of talk is common eaangh, but I have neet found it held by men of experience and thought. With some- exceptions, they console-!- that then is no good reason to believe that the gooel hers s of today, trained for the sort of racing that wtat mi forty years ago. e-ould not equal or excel Ihe performances of the good horses of that p- riod. It is not possible, eef o.nirse. to make an accurate comparison of the- animals of different times, but the qualities of classe-s may be fairly estimated, and by this measure Major Tompkins opinion can be taken simply for what it is worth, lb- is an extremist and has on the other side those- who will go te equal lengths in the opposite direction. Sound judgment is more- nearly found in the belief expressed by Lie-ut.-Col. Riiodes. e-ominaniiaiil of the Mounted Service School at Fort Biley, Kansas, who has been instrumental in securing tin- views of both military and civil interests connected with this branch of tin- service, and who holds that "we can, by scientific breeding, reproduce from the thoroughbred the ideal cavalry mount. " — Francis Nelson in Toronto .lobe.
