6b0 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



We must coordinate our work and for the protection of many million 

 dollars worth of livestock be willing to spend more than a paltry few 

 thousand annually in such a great and vital work. We must create an 

 efficient scientifically trained corps of experts in full sympathy with 

 the advancement of agriciilture in every phase to watch over and 

 guard this industry from disease. This service must be so created as 

 to give assurance of respect from all interests involved. Able enough 

 to create a public sentiment which will respect its decisions and poli- 

 cies, with no partisan politics and factional entanglements, so that 

 no exceptions can be found to its rules and regulations. It must be 

 free from local attachments which might hamper the enforcement of 

 what is know^n to be for the greatest good of the greatest number. 



It must be sufficiently supported financially to insure that efficient 

 men can be attracted to it who are capable of outlining such a broad 

 policy for the control of animal diseases. Its cost need not to exceed 

 one per cent of our average annual loss from disease at present. 



AMERICAN DRAFT HORSE BREEDING METHODS AS COMPARED 



TO EUROPE. 



(Paper read by H. Lefebure, Fairfax, Iowa, at Annual Meeting of Iowa 

 Draft Horse Breeders' Association, Des Moines, Dec. 30, 1914.) 



The American methods, I am sorry to say, are very diverse. We 

 have some breeders who pay close attention to their live stock, who 

 feed well and use the best of judgment in caring for their live stock, 

 but too many of our farmers use too little help upon their farms and 

 undertake to do too must themselves. 



I did considerable traveling about this state last fall in search of a 

 few native pure bred Belgian stallions to fill some of our empty stalls. 

 Among those I purchased were a couple of two year olds that weighed 

 1980 and 1940 pounds respectively upon arrival at the farm, neither 

 having as yet shed a tooth. I also found some very good and growthy 

 yearlings that were as good as could be found in Europe. 



Upon the farms on which I found these good colts, I noticed that 

 the mares were in good condition, that the colts in pasture were fed 

 grain whenever the grass was short, and that the owners were men 

 who marketed their grain by feeding it with care to the stock upon the 

 farm. They were men who took much pleasure and enjoyment in 

 watching the colts enjoy a good feed. They were men I wouldn't be 

 surprised at seeing sit on the top of a board fence watching the hogs 

 crack corn and be so interested as not to hear the dinner bell ring. 

 Men who will stop a little and watch the colts enjoy their feed are as 

 a rule the successful ones; they are the European kind — the kind that 

 keep enough help to do the work properly. 



Getting back nearer my subject of comparisons between European 

 and American methods, I will compare with Belgian methods, inas- 

 much as I am more familiar with them, knowing as I do that unfor- 

 tunate little kingdom as well as I do the county of Linn which has 

 been my home from the time of my birth. 



