No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 419 



I find in doing the county fairs that there is very often a mistake 

 made in the classification. In some fairs there has been no attempt 

 at classification, and in some there was in use the classification 

 adopted by the State Breeders' Association, but the entries were 

 not properly classified. It is a frequent thing to see horses that 

 should have been classified under one head, in the other class; of 

 course in the class they were they would not get a ribbon, whereas 

 if they had been in their proper class they would have been repre- 

 sentatives of their kind. 



Now, in this regard another thing. In one of the counties a man 

 showed horses, and he was very much displeased that they did not 

 win a ribbon; he said he had been breeding this kind of horses for 

 thirty years, and didn't want any one to tell him about horses. 

 Now, the facts were these: he had a certain breed of horses, which 

 had certain characteristics, which the breeders had been trying to 

 eliminate for the past thirty years, and had nearly succeeded in 

 eliminating.. Now, the point was this: he had kept out of touch 

 with the market for thirty years, and had lost sight of the standards, 

 and he had the same horses today that he had thirty years ago, 

 without a single improvement. Instead of keeping in touch with the 

 market, and thoroughl}- conforming to it, he kept on breeding in 

 his own way, and today his horses are not up to the standard 

 that the market wants. If you have any market close to you, you 

 will not sell any horses, no matter how good, unless you keep in 

 touch with that market, and find out just what its standards are. 



The markets of today recognize five grades — four classes and a 

 misfit. The first is the draught horse, weighing from 1,(300 to 2.000 

 pounds, the type is adapted for movement of the greatest possible 

 loads, and not expected to move those loads very fast. Second, the 

 coach horses, adapted for carriage work in the cities; third, general 

 driver, and fourth, saddle horses. Now, the question arises, it 

 seems to me, ''which is the most profitable type for us to devote 

 our energies to?" With most farmers the ordinary draught horse 

 is the one preferred. Draught horses can be bred very well to 

 do the ordinary farm work. You must raise the horses on the 

 farm, and you should have the mares, and then you have the results 

 to produce this class. But here comes in the question of variation 

 in breeding, one of the most trying things a breeder has to contend 

 with. We know the old maxim "like begets like," and the breeder 

 often reasons on this basis only to be disappointed. He has reason 

 to look for more than a good average, and he gets less than a good 

 average. Now, if you will take a hundred draught colts, and com- 

 pare them with any other kind, and you will find that they are more 

 nearly what the breeder wants than any other kind of horses will be. 

 They are generally put to breeding earlier, or if not that, they are 

 put to work as two year old fillies. We don't do both. If we don't 

 care to breed these colts, we make half horses of them; that is, 

 we make them do half a day's work. It won't hurt them to work 

 a little. Then, if you have left any stumpy ground, or anything 

 else that may cause injuries, this class is much less apt to become 

 injured than any other class, and even if they are injured, the injury 

 is less than the other class or classes. Then there is always a 

 market for this class of horses. There is no great demand in move- 

 ment, but there is always a market for the good, steady draught 



