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Reading-Course fur Farmers. 



with which you are breeding, or simply to market the greatest possible 

 number of animals? If the object is to improve the strain, one should 

 never attempt to breed a two-year-old filly. 



The practice in certain draft-horse producing countries, Great Britain 

 for example, is to breed the draft fillies the spring they are two years old 

 and allow them no work whatever that season. After weaning their 

 foals, they are taken as three-year-olds and put to work, and not bred 



Fig. 5. — Good type of general-purpose mare, weighing 1200 pounds. 



again until they are four years old. This system is worthy of adoption 

 when one wishes to know the breeding qualities of his mare as early as 

 possible, otherwise there is no advantage, as one will secure just as 

 many colts if he waits till the mare is three years old and then breeds her. 

 When draft horses are wanted simply for marketing, there is no 

 reason why fillies cannot be bred at two years of age, provided they are 

 mature, have been well grown, and their owner is willing to feed and 

 care for them properly during their pregnancy. Nor is there any reason 



