Missouri Draft Horse Breeders' Association. 529 



pure-bred draft stallions to each county of this, the greatest 

 draft horse State in the Union. A mighty little leaven to 

 leaven so large a lump. 



Reports from neighboring states tell a similar story. In 

 spite of the automobile and auto truck the growth of popula- 

 tion has brought about a greater demand for horses for farm 

 and city work. 



The corn belt farmer wants to awaken to the use of only 

 pure-bred draft stallions and to the necessity of increasing 

 the number of such stallions in every community, to the ex- 

 clusion of the mongrel and the scrub. 



"Grading up," as Doctor Alexander so well states, "means 

 using a pure-bred stallion for the first cross and continuously 

 crossing the resultant female progeny with pure-bred stallions 

 of the breed first used until all impure blood has been practically 

 bred out." And that "as soon as possible in every community 

 unsound, unsuitable, undersized breeding animals should be 

 discarded — sound, high-class mares substituted and only pure- 

 bred stallions patronized." 



But the call of the times is to be the pure bred as never 

 before. The expense of maintenance is the same; the labor 

 of the pure bred is the equal or superior of the grade. Lineage 

 is no license to loaf in either man or beast, and the profit and 

 pleasure of breeding pure breds is incomparably greater. The 

 pure-bred weanling brings as many dollars as a well-matured 

 high grade. The pure-bred drafter on the corn belt farm spells 

 better farming, better fencing, practical elimination of the 

 barb wire and the barbarian scrub, and the maintenance of 

 our heritage unimpaired as the seed bed of the draft horse 

 industry. 



Other lands are casting eyes toward the United States for 

 breeding stock of the beef breeds of cattle. Breeders of dairy 

 cattle are at this very time anticipating the production in 

 America of the choicest specimens of their favorite breeds. 

 Already we have distanced foreign lands in the production of 

 ideal types of swine. Is it possible that having drawn to this 

 country for years the highest type and best individuals of draft 

 horses that the day will not come when the draft horse, in the 

 splendor of this massive form, graceful carriage and symmetrical 

 outline, will not be sought for in our own country by our own 

 breeders and the breeders of foreign countries. It would be an 

 indictment of the intelligence and perseverance of our people 



