532 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



pounds or better, and then you come to quality at once and you 

 must have finish. He must have the appearance of the sire. 

 He must impress you not only with his form and conformation 

 and the fact that he measures up to the requirements, but the 

 impression which he conveys to your mind is that he is a draft 

 sire. He has the heart girth, the eye, which would bespeak 

 the sire, the neck, crest, carriage, movement, action and dash 

 and breed character. It settles itself in certain individuals, 

 largely. 



We understand there have been no horses that were perfect, 

 so we have to content ourselves with the best we can get, the 

 best that we can afford, and I think there are some of these 

 things which are the very essential. 



When it comes to the mares, I do not think the best results, 

 as a rule, are obtained through the largest mares, yet when I 

 say that I recall three instances which are directly opposite. 

 I had one mare which would weigh in work condition over a 

 ton; another one in show condition would probably weigh 2,100 

 pounds — big mares that were grand breeders — ^and the mare, 

 lolantha, of which you have heard, was a large mare and an 

 exceptional breeder, but generally I believe the mares around 

 1,700 to 1,800 pounds will give more and better colts. I am 

 satisfied of one thing; most of the show stock with which I 

 have acquaintance come from stock of that kind. 



My policy has been to divide good things with the people, 

 yet there are some mares I wouldn't sell to the people at all. 

 There are a great many good mares and a great many sold 

 young which have every reason to be as good as the older mares. 

 I do not believe any man in the business can afford to sell all 

 of that kind all the time. I never have much faith in a farm 

 where everything is for sale, because I don't believe it is in the 

 realm of possibility for a man to build up his stock and build 

 up his business and be willing to sell all of his stock at any time. 



There is another class of stock that you don't know what 

 to do with, and that is the mare that you don't want, that 

 you don't want your neighbor to have and that you don't want 

 some innocent party to have. The best thing you can do is to 

 take the loss yourself and sell her as a work mare. 



The requirement for the sire should be soundness. With 

 the mares I would say "serviceably sound." It has been a 

 little more difficult to keep the mares good because you work 

 them. I do not pay any attention to an unsoundness which 



