452 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



A good way to ascertain what progress we are making with 

 the draft horse in Missouri is to lay ourselves down, as a State, 

 along the side of other or adjacent states. Are we keeping pace 

 with any of them? Let's see what Secretary Wayne Dinsmore of 

 the American Percheron Society says. According to his state- 

 ment, Illinois stands first in the production of the Percheron. His 

 figures show that 10,758 American-bred Percherons were recorded 

 from August 1, 1910, to May 1, 1912; 2,786, or 25.8 per cent were 

 bred in Illinois. He claims that Illinois is the center of the 

 Percheron breeding territory, and that the territory includes six 

 states — Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. He 

 does not even mention Missouri, or intimate that it is even con- 

 sidered as a Percheron breeding state. And yet, we probably have 

 more of this breed in Missouri than any other breed of draft 

 horses. If we draw a map of the territory he counts as Percheron 

 breeding territory, we find we are surrounded by Illinois on the 

 east, Kansas and Nebraska on the west and Iowa on the north. 

 The question arises, can the trouble be attributed to soil and 

 climatic conditions? No, we have a great soil and superior graz- 

 ing lands, if not greater, in a productive sense, than any of these 

 states. Our climatic conditions are even more favorable than, 

 those of the states named, for draft horse breeding. With pastures 

 of luxuriant blue grass, supplied with rippling streams of pure, 

 clear, wholesome water, dotted on either side with native shade 

 trees in summer, we find our live stock grazing in. the open, enjoy- 

 ing the benefits of pure air and freedom of exercise until after 

 the Christmas holidays, while the live stock of these other states 

 have been housed up so long they think that winter must surely 

 be half over. So the trouble is not the soil or climatic condition. 



As a farm paper man traveling through these other states, 

 visiting and soliciting these importers and dealers for their adver- 

 tising and announcements for the Missouri Ruralist, I believe I 

 have made some discoveries; at least I have learned something of 

 what the horsemen of these other states think of Missourians as 

 horsemen. Of course, I think and argue that they are wrong in 

 their conclusions, but I may be mistaken, and they may be partially 

 correct. But I am going to give you the picture as they have 

 drawn it or presented it to me. 



It is with great difficulty, solicitation, arguments and with 

 many promises, that we get them to spend any money in the farm 

 press of this State in advertising their stock. They say, "We 

 have tried it before and the result was a loss of effort. We don't 



