At a horse auction you see a singular collection of good and bad horses; and it is one of the jokes of the Islands to go to a horse auction and buy a horse for a quarter of a dollar.

The Government has vainly tried to put a check to the reckless increase of horseflesh by laying a tax on these animals, and by impounding them if the tax is not paid.

I was told of a planter who bought on one occasion fifty horses out of a pound, at twenty-five cents a head, and had them all shot and put into a manure pile.

But if the horse is worth his tax it is pretty certain to be paid; and it is not easy to keep them off the pastures.
Cattle ranchos usually extend over from fifteen to thirty thousand acres of land; though many are smaller, and some, on Hawaii, larger.

The grass is of different varieties, but the most useful, as well as now the most abundant, is the _manienie_, of which I have before made mention.