Report of Missouri Farmers* Week. 433 



horse, or have plenty of harness work such a stallion can perform, 

 to make his sire profitable to keep. No stallion can make a repu- 

 tation unless by luck or by good management he has access to good 

 mares. The lack of this opportunity has ruined the good name of 

 nine horses in ten, and has discouraged horse breeding in four- 

 fifths of our communities ; for the average American farm mare is 

 a shocking brute. 



The chief reason why any farmer should keep mares and 

 should breed all of them is that the ensuing colt crop is practically 

 a side issue — a "catch crop" which produces itself, so to speak; 

 while a mare is a sort of equine "cascaret," if in foal, that "works 

 while you sleep," and while she rests or toils at other labor to 

 produce you the foal which costs no more than a calf to get. 



Foals dropped in the late fall inconvenience nobody, mare or 

 master, come at the time when work is slack and horses can be 

 spared for a week or two — while the youngster gets to spring grass 

 at just the right age to wean off without checking growth, and to 

 have by fly-time a long enough tail and mane to partially protect 

 himself from insect attacks — an inconsidered item in the welfare 

 of very young animals which has much to do with their growth 

 and flesh-keeping. 



What a curious fact it is, when the horse is the only animal 

 which every farmer, whatever his line of business, must keep, 

 and usually keep in quantity, that those animals are the only ones 

 he does not himself raise; and that he puts out millions of dol- 

 lars annually in equipping and renovating his stable force, when 

 he could perfectly easily and most economically provide himself 

 with all the young, sound, fresh horses he needs, and turn a num- 

 ber of them each year into hard cash for his own pocket — make 

 them a source of profit instead of a cause of great and inconvenient 

 outlay. When farm horses cost $400 up a pair, no farmer can 

 afford to buy them — and even if he does he only gets the dregs of 

 the market and never a really high-class animal. Furthermore, 

 both the proprietor, the family and the help will take far more 

 pride in and care of home-raised horses than of any purchased 

 animals. Ordinary sentiment and personal pride insures that. 



The average farmer is a poor feeder, in that he has an exalted 

 opinion of the value of hay and roughage in the feeding of horses. 

 He is not apt, when hay and grain closely approach each other in 

 price per pound, to avail himself and his horse property, of that 

 fact and increase the grain ration, while at the same time diminish- 

 ing the amount of roughage fed. The mangers are kept full of 



A-28 



