BREEDING AND RAISING COLTS. 209 



BREEDING AND RAISING COLTS. 



By S. C. Watson. Member from Kennebec County. 



[Read at Readfield Institute.] 



The question that is being asked, not onlj' by Kennebec farmers, 

 but by farmers all over the State of Maine, "how can we make 

 farming pay," must to a great extent be answered by the farmers 

 themselves. The character of the soil, the location of the farm, the 

 inclination or natural bent of the farmer himself, must govern 

 largely in deciding what lines of farming will pay best in the indi- 

 vidual case ; and yet, from observing others' wa3's, availing him- 

 self of others' experience, making more correct application of the 

 principles that govern in the raising of crops and the breeding of 

 animals, one ma}' improve his methods and increase his profits. 

 Hence the farmers' institute, the grange and other agencies for 

 obtaining information relating to his business, and the importance 

 of availing himself of the benefits afforded by them. 



In discussing this question of making farming pa}-, I shall attempt 

 to show that the breeding and raising of fine horses offers as great 

 inducement and promises as sure returns of profit as any business 

 that Maine farmers can engage in. 



I have stood on the old Kennebec fair ground, just round the 

 corner from where we are assembled, and as I have looked down 

 the long lines of oxen and steers brought together from the sur- 

 rounding towns, I have reasoned that these men have faith in oxen, 

 they believe in beef, they must have found profit in this class of 

 stock. And so they have, but how is it to-day? Is there a man 

 among them all that can figure out one cent of profit on the beef 

 product of his farm in the last year, or in the last five years ? But 

 say these ox men, "we must have oxen to do our farm work with." 

 Must you, have you ever tried a horse team? If not you will be 

 astonished to find how much more comfortably and readily it can be 

 done with the latter. A pair of good horses, weighing from ten to 

 twelve hundred pounds, will do more work, from breaking up green- 

 sward to hauling lumber in the forest, and do it with greater ease to 

 the team and the owner, than will your seven and a half foot cattle, 

 and at a great saving of time and of cost in keeping, and time is 

 money on the farm as well as in the whirl of business. 



