520 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



largely. What are the market demands? They are for horses 

 standing around seventeen hands, with weight, quality and con- 

 formation. How do we produce that kind? By having good 

 draft mares, breeding to splendid stallions weighing a ton or 

 over and by giving them that often-neglected "corncrib" cross. 



Too many men think that because the colt has big stock in 

 it that it will go out to the stalk field with the rest of the horses 

 and mature into a fine, large horse. A horse's future depends 

 largely on the care it gets the first two years, especially the first 

 year. Feed generously. 



Men on small farms should keep nothing but good, big mares 

 to use; they will do all the work and raise a colt worth from $100 

 to $150. 



The Agricultural College, especially the animal husbandry 

 department, is the best friend the farmer ever had. Boys who 

 come here to school get an incentive that couldn't be given so 

 easily any other way. Every boy loves his stock judging class 

 and goes home determined to raise better stock. Then if the 

 father doesn't encourage him by getting better horses a large 

 part of the good he got out of school is gone. Humor the boy 

 by letting him have one good team well harnessed and you will 

 almost have the problem of keeping the boys on the farm solved. 



Then the hired man is to be considered. He is much better 

 satisfied if you give him a splendid team; he will take better care 

 of it and be in better humor to do other work. No good hired 

 man likes the "Boss" unless he is somewhat progressive. 



I am trying very hard to get my neighbors to get better 

 mares, either by buying or grading up with what they already 

 have, and my labors in that line are not lost as many are now 

 searching diligently for good mares. It is true we have been 

 careless about this matter too long for our own good, but will 

 probably be heard from in the Tuture. 



I had a pair of our good mares in town one day when a 

 horse buyer from St. Louis who was buying horses said: "I 

 guess that pair isn't for sale, but the farmers must raise that 

 kind if they expect us to continue coming here after horses." 



Now there are several ways the draft horse business can be 

 helped. One is the community colt show. I saw a lady last 

 fall who had been at Bloomington, 111., during their colt show, 

 and she thought there was more enthusiasm and more good colts 

 than she had ever seen before. 



