538 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



profit from using draft blood. Every lime you can put into 

 circulation a plain statement of the facts in such a case it is 

 just as truly worth while as increasing your yield of corn. On 

 many a farm the same mares have produced colts, first from 

 inferior stallions and later from good' registered draft animals. 

 In hundreds of cases the development and sale of these colts, 

 side by side, has proven the case of the- drafter beyond any pos- 

 sibility of doubt. But the evidence has not been worked for all 

 it was worth. As a rule, it never gets beyond the realm of 

 neighborhood gossip, and there the owner of the scrub stallion 

 is always on the job and often will manage in some way to cloud 

 the issue. It is well worth while to write out the facts of every 

 such case. Get them straight. Mention no stallion owner's 

 names, but make it clear that it was the colts by the registered 

 draft stallion that made the best money. Cut out the element 

 of personal advertising and you can count on your home papers 

 and the better class of live stock papers making use of what you 

 send. We not only print everything of this sort that appears 

 to be fair, but we suggest to our readers that they get their 

 home papers to copy. It is also a good thing to give your 

 home paper briefly the prices which pure-bred draft stallions, 

 mares and fillies bring in the market where this kind of stock is 

 current. Often he exchanges or can exchange with agricultural 

 papers that give such facts. Get him started and he may keep 

 it up himself. Extremes in prices, however, are not educa- 

 tional unless full explanation is given with them. Two points 

 to be made are that it costs something to go out into the na- 

 tional market and buy foundation stock, and that the business, 

 once started, is supported by a steady demand at good figures. 



The part that draft blood plays in the production of our 

 highest-priced mules is one of the most important arguments 

 in its favor. The American Royal Draft Horse Show last fall 

 furnished one of the most striking examples of this fact. As far 

 as I could learn by making careful inquiry, almost every prize 

 winner in what is conceded to be the most high class mule show 

 ever held was out of a mare carrying draft blood. Some were 

 out of very nearly full-blood mares. It was the draftiness of the 

 mares, added to the undoubted quality back of both mares and 

 jacks, which put the premium on the ten head bought by Mr. 

 W. R. Crackel of Indiana at the record-breaking price of $3,800. 



I believe that a man's attitude toward other interests than 

 his own has an important bearing on the consideration which 



