1082 New York State Breeders' Association 



farm horses have wind ti\)ubles, heaves, etc.; cause and effect 

 right there. I have not in thirty years, fed hay but once a day — 

 at night. No working horse shoukl have it at any other time. A 

 small stomach, like the horse's, is easily overloaded; digestion is 

 damaged ; food does little good ; it is not what an animal con- 

 sumes, but what it digests that counts. 



There is no special science in feeding. Success lies in the 

 watchfulness of the feeder over each individual ; an intimate 

 acquaintance with its likes and dislikes ; an open eye to see, and 

 an open mind to grasp and to profit by what one sees. The per- 

 sonal equation is too often an unconsidered factor in the handling 

 of all animals ; and I have often had grooms caring for two lots 

 of horses, all doing the same work and on the same feed ; yet one 

 man's lot did 30 per cent, better than the other's. Nowhere is 

 this faculty more valuable than in handling young stock — the 

 quiet, watchful, prompt, careful feeder is worth twice what he 

 ever gets in wages, and even thus paid, is a great economy. 



Your young heavy horses should be made handy in harness as 

 yearlings; put at light work as two-year-olds; at regular farm 

 labor at three. The surplus should be sold the first time anyone 

 names you a fair price, at any age. You can make a little quick 

 money; you avoid all future accidents, if the colt turns out well 

 he is your best advertisement ; if badly, you were well rid of him. 

 Furthermore you do what ordinary business precaution requires 

 every farmer to do — you have started promptly a perishable 

 article on its way to the consumer at a fair profit to yourself. 

 The moment any agriculturist fails to carry out this business 

 precaution with all his produce, he becomes a speculator, and a 

 speculator in "futures" of a very precarious nature. 



Should your fancy run to producing lighter horses, the trotter, 

 the large, able, robust animal of that variety of as much good 

 looks as possible, as much size as you can manage to grow him 

 to, some action, and a fair pace at the trot, is the only sort you 

 can hope to both use profitably and sell at an advance over cost. 

 You should mature him early, but you will liiid it very hard to 

 sell him before he has a full mouth; he will not hr very valuable 

 to you while Vdiiiig as a worker; the demand for him is growing 

 loss every year; it is to just such horses that the motor car is 



