662 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The little colts make a wonderful growth by weaning time and 

 the successful breeder keeps his colts on full feed until matured. 

 The successful Belgian horse breeders — the ones who have good strong 

 stallion colts to offer buyers every year — are men who feed grain twice 

 daily to their yearling and two year old stallions, even though they 

 be knee deep in grass. Very few of our American horse breeders 

 crowd the colts along until maturity. If they would care for their 

 colts as do the Belgian breeders, if they would care for the colts as 

 the most successful of our Iowa pure bred cattle breeders care for their 

 calves, our American pure bred horses would compare with those of 

 Euope as do our American cattle with those of England and Scotland. 



I often hear men of this country say: "That colt was crowded and 

 will have its growth early." I say it is just the opposite; the colts 

 that we keep growing constantly will develop into much better and 

 stronger horses. The colt that has been allowed to stop growing at 

 times is the colt that I would expect to mature early and grow but 

 little after three years of age. Many of our American breeders do not 

 get their colts accustomed to eating grain before weaning time and 

 allow them to be stunted the first winter. These colts will never make 

 up the time lost. They will never be so large or nearly so large as 

 the colts that are kept growing as are the colts of Belgium. Neither 

 will they sell for half the money. 



The foreign powers are destroying each other at the present time 

 and many of the very valuable horses of Belgium have been destroyed. 

 Indigene de Fosteau, the greatest draft stallion that ever lived, the 

 only stallion that ever carried off the grand championship for four 

 years in succession, a stallion that was worth $30,000 when young 

 and changed owners and localities at the age of fourteen for $10,000, 

 has been killed. His owner, Mr. M. Bury, was shot while trying to 

 defend his prize horse. Some of the valuable stallions were taken 

 to Holland and some to England. There is no question but that the 

 draft horse industry of Belgium is receiving a terrible blow and that 

 now is the opportune time for owners of draft mares in America to 

 take advantage of the situation by caring for their young horses as 

 do the Belgian breeders. Our American dealers will gladly pay you 

 good prices for colts of sufficient size and strength but we cannot use 

 the undersized ones. We cannot sell them. I have purchased some of 

 them, but for no other purpose than to express appreciation of the 

 continued patronage of good old customers, but I have lost money on 

 every purchase of this kind. 



I will now switch off onto another branch, government encourage- 

 ment. What the Belgian government did to stimulate interest in the 

 constant and continued improvement in their breed of horses is won- 

 derful. There is seldom a week when there is not a horse or colt show 

 in some commune or other of Belgium. The medals and cash prizes 

 are furnished by the government and on account of the large number 

 of entries in many of these shows, ten prizes are offered in each class 

 and the judges must find and place the best ten. These shows are 

 one day shows. The horses are taken in early, are on exhibition dur- 



