officers go to the different breeding centres, examine the horses from three to four years' old, and make purchases. These visits are necessarily foreseen. Dealers of all nationalities, and especially foreigners, take the precaution to come prior to the arrival of the remount officers, and buy the best they can find, which is easy for them, because they give a better price. The remount people choose the best of what is left. These horses, which are considered too young for any work, are sent to the remount depots, where they are kept until they are five years old. Sometimes they are put out to grass with farmers at a moderate cost.

I set aside all details to arrive at the principal point, namely, the age at which remounts should be bought ; taking for granted that they are not fit for work until five years old.^[1] Only at that age they are begun to be exercised and are put to more or less appropriate regular work, in other words, they are broken in. This system is a tradition and a principle ; but at the risk of running against all accepted ideas, I say that the tradition is an error, the principle false and the system bad.

It is a loss of precious time to keep a horse until he is five years old before exercising, breaking and training him for military purposes. Besides, this delay doubles his first cost and deteriorates his physical organs, which suffer atrophy, on account of insufficient feeding and work.

At three years and a half, a well-shaped horse^[2] which has