By the age of two, or two years and a half, the horse is in a state to engender; and mares, like all other females, are still more forward; but these young horses produce only foals ill-shaped, or of bad constitutions. The horse should at least be four or four years and a half before he is admitted to the mare, and even that is too early, unless for draught and large horses. It is necessary to wait till the sixth year for a fine breed, and the Spanish stallion should not be admitted before the seventh. The mares may be a year younger; they are usually in season from the end of March to the end of June; but they are most fit to receive the male for about fifteen days or three weeks, and this is the best period for admitting them to the stallion. He should be chosen with care, handsome, well made, vigorous, perfectly sound, and of a good breed. To have handsome saddle-horses, foreign stallions, as Arabian, Turkish, Barbary, and Andalusian horses, are preferable to all others; and even, notwithstanding their faults, the English horses may be successfully made use of, because they came originally from the above-mentioned, and are not much degenerated; the food being excellent in England, where they are also very careful in keeping up the breed. The stallions of Italy, especially those of Naples, are very good, and produce handsome saddle-horses, when coupled with well-shaped mares, and fine coach-horses when with mares of a large stature. It is pretended, that in France, England, &c. the Arabian and Barbary horses usually beget horses larger than themselves, and that the Spanish horses produce a smaller breed. To have handsome coach-horses we should make use of Neapolitan and Danish stallions, or those from Holstein or Friezeland. The stallions should be full 14 hands and a half high for saddle-horses, and fifteen hands for coach-horses; a stallion should also have a good coat, black as jet, or of a fine grey, bay, or chesnut. All which seem in their colour as if they were washed or ill-coloured should be banished from the breed, as well as those which have white extremities. Besides these exterior, a stallion should also have the best interior, qualities, such as courage, docility, spirit, and agility; sensibility in the mouth, freedom in his shoulders; he should be sure footed, supple in the haunches, and have a spring in the whole body, but above all in his hind legs, and should have been well broke and trained. These particulars it is the more necessary to observe in the choice of a stallion, because it has been remarked, that he communicates by generation almost all his good and bad qualities, both natural and acquired. A horse, naturally morose, gloomy, stubborn, &c. produces foals of the same disposition: and as the defects of conformation, as well as the vices of the humours, perpetuate with still more certainty than the natural qualities, great care should be taken to exclude from