244 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the old "Pine Tree State." Frequently fiirmers utterl}' fail to 

 realize any profit from the business, in the vain attempt to breed fast 

 horses from stoek that is ea[)ahle of prodncing only general purpose 

 horses. The inducement is held out that you ma}^ raise a colt that 

 will sell for a big price, and they take their chances, which is about 

 one in nine hundred and ninety-nine, and the result is, as I have al- 

 ready stated, a failure, and they condemn the business. Whereas, 

 if lliev had ensfaojed in the business understandiniijlv thev would have 

 realized a [>r()fit. And another reason I would give for raising general 

 purpose horses is, we have more dams and more sires in this class by 

 a large percentage than in any other, and we are not all able and 

 have not the capital to stock our farms up with a higher priced class of 

 breeding mares. Well, some will say, the business is liable to be 

 overdone, the market will be glutted. One thing is certain, there 

 never was a time since ni}' recollection v^^hen a good horse would not 

 sell at a remunerative price. Annually there are hundreds of horses 

 beins: brought into the State from the West and from the Islands to 

 fill up the vacancy caused from the farmers attempting to raise horses 

 without a thorousrh knowledoje of the business. It is a well-known 

 fact that much of the horse stock in this State is small, and how to 

 increase their size without destroying their symmetrical form or with- 

 out having them ill-shaped and out of proportion, or witiiout destroy- 

 ing their ability to transmit to their offspring that even temperament 

 which is very essential to the animal in order that it may attain 

 to the highest type of usefulness, is a question asked by many farmers 

 of this State. 



The idea is quite prevalent with a large number of farmers 

 that a brood mare of small size mated with a stallion of large size 

 would produce results which would be damaging to the business 

 and detrimental to the interests of the breeder; in fact, would have 

 a tendency to increase the number of ill-shaped and inferior horses 

 which now fill up our barns and stables to too great an extent. 



I wish to introduce the testimony of as good authority as is to be 

 found in this country, M. W. Dunham of Illinois, who says: ''The 

 success that has attended the crossing of Percheron Norman stallions 

 upon small mares has led to their introduction into the West and 

 Southwest to breed upon the Texas broncos and Indian ponies. The 

 success has been so extraordinary that the United States Interior 

 Department has begun the introduction of Percheron stallions for 

 the use of the Indians to cross upon their ponies, and has bought 



