Report of Missouri Farmer's' Week. 



425 



ings; and when you ask me, "Shall the average farmer breed 

 horses?" I can make but one emphatic reply, **Yes, if he will go 

 about it moderately ; stick resolutely to one breed ; be sure that 

 the breed is what buyers approve, and can make work for his 

 mares, and young things old enough for labor, until he sells them." 



Idle horses have eaten up more farmers than any other mis- 

 managed item anyone can name, and have done more to keep the 

 mortgage on the farm than anything else. It takes nice manage- 

 ment to keep all your horses busy 300 days in the year, and true 

 economy demands that they shall nearly so average ; and that they 

 shall have the bulk, vigor and endurance to handle the modern 

 machinery ably, steadily and regularly. Many a man is working, 

 feeding, shoeing, harnessing and caring for three light horses, 

 when two heavy ones would do the work better. The horse kept 

 for driving and for nothing else, does not earn, his keep unless the 

 owner is financially able to act as manager of his place, and not 

 as a working foreman, and therefore needs such a horse to get 

 about rapidly. 



If you ask me what breed of horses I advocate, I reply that I 

 have no intention of booming any variety of the horse. Every one 

 of you knows what sort of horse the traveling buyers are looking 

 for, and what strain of blood they prefer. They are the customers 

 you must suit, for any farmer is foolish to try to sell at the whole- 

 sale or retail markets the horses he raises. That is a separate 

 business, and many experts have given their lifetime to gain what 



Astral King 2805, by Bourbon King ; dam, Miss Carrick by Highland Denmark. 

 Winner of the Mexico Commercial Club Championship Stake of $1,000, Mexico fair, 

 1912. Owned by James Houchin, Jefferson City, Mo. 



