210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



It costs no more to feed the two horses than it does to feed the 

 two oxen, while the horses will do nearly or quite double the amount 

 of work in a day that the oxen will. Besides, every farmer is sup- 

 posed to have one horse at least, so in fact the additional horse 

 really takes the place of the two oxen, thereby i educing the cost of 

 keeping the team that will do all the work on the large majority of 

 farms, and te suitable for going to market, for visiting friends and 

 for taking the family to church. Again, the necessity of employing 

 machinery for doing farm work makes it also necessary to em- 

 ploy horses for operating that machinery. The farmer of to-day 

 cannot plod behind the slow- moving ox team of our fathers' day if 

 he would not get left. The small margin of profit in all the pro- 

 ducts of the farm compels the farmer to produce all of his crops at 

 the minimum of cost, and in no way can this be done more surely 

 than by substituting horse power and farm machinery for hand or 

 man labor. 



But what has this to do with breeding and raising colts? It has 

 this to do with it : Tbe farm team that I have been recommending 

 should consist of a good brood mare and another horse or what is 

 better, of two of the best mares that you can obtain. Such a team 

 will readily perform all the work on a hundred acre farm, and bear 

 and bring up one or two colts, as the case may be, with but little 

 trouble and inconvenience. The mare can be worked up to within 

 a few hours of dropping her foal, and when the colt is two or three 

 days old she can again be put to light work without doing herself or 

 offspring any harm whatever, by using proper care in feeding and 

 never overheating. 



In breeding-horses whether trotters, roadsters or strictly work- 

 horses, too much importance cannot be attached to the dam — if you 

 expect to meet with success in breeding horses you must select the 

 right kind of stock to breed from. Especially should this apply to 

 the dam. The Arabs placed more dependence upon the dam than 

 the sire. Americans have reversed the rule and place more depen- 

 dence on the sire. Whichever rule may be right, the best results 

 have been realized when both animals were superior. It is a fact 

 that the dams of a majority of our most distinguished horses were 

 especially remarkable for their endurance. Speed in the sire and 

 endurance in the dam are the prerequisites to transmitting those 

 qualities unimpaired to their offspring. Other qualities that I would 

 combine in my ideal horse — the horse most in demand, the horse pro- 



