Report of Missouri Farmers^ Week. 431 



whole question of durability in the horse's legs is settled : First, by 

 the way the legs set into and stand under the body ; second, by the 

 wearing character and soundness of the feet ; third, by the relation 

 of all the joints to each other and to the body; fourth, by the 

 placing and shape of the shoulder blades; fifth, by the common 

 sense of the owner and the driver; sixth, by the intelligence and 

 skill of the blacksmith. Never leave a horse when you are buying 

 or refuse to patronize him when you are breeding, just because you 

 imagine (or someone has told you) that "he is too light below the 

 knee," and for no other reason. Oh ! the good ones we have left 

 because of that bugaboo, and the lobsters we have bought be- 

 cause they "spanned" about so much under the knee. Do you engage 

 your farm hands by the same method? If light bone does not 

 bother the drafter you have worked hard for ten years, why should 

 you worry ? A good breedy head and neck, a fine countenance, and 

 an intelligent wide-awake expression half sell any horse. Don't 

 own or buy or breed to any big-headed, bull-necked, sulky-looking 

 mutt just because he looks "cheap," and just because otherwise, he 

 is of good draft shape. However cheap you think he is he is 

 always dear whatever you pay. A good front usually carries with 

 it a fine finish — fine mane and tail, clean, heels, fine coat, smooth 

 articulations everywhere, and harmonious development in all parts. 

 As you choose your friends, so select your horses — by the head and 

 countenance first. 



If there could be a state or general law enacted forbidding any 

 farmer to own any gelding more than four years of age, it would 

 work boundless advantages to the agriculturist, in that (1) it 

 would insure his keeping mares to do his farm work; (2) it would 

 encourage him to breed such mares; (3) it would induce him to 

 feed his young stock freely; to mature and break them early; to 

 put them at light labor as two and three-year-olds; (4) it would 

 compel him to market all his gelding in or before their fourth year, 

 when they are perfectly saleable nowadays, and before they have 

 had a chance to accumulate the various infirmities of wind and 

 limb to which farm-managed horseflesh is heir. Four-year-olds 

 are needed nowadays in any market, and are mature enough for 

 any average work. The old-fashioned idea that no horse was 

 marketable until he had a "full-mouth" — i. e., was five years old 

 or over — is exploded, and the farmer who keeps any horse, unless 

 he has work for him, one day after he can sell him at a profit (no 

 matter what his age) is taking a tremendous risk with a very 



