FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 663 



ing the day and home again at night. One show is a colt show and 

 then a two year old filly show and then a two year old stallion show 

 and then the mare show and the stallion show. 



There are several stallion shows each year in each of the several 

 provinces of Belgium, one for government inspection for service li- 

 cense at which prizes are given to the ten best, the regular fall stal- 

 lion show and then there is the show of aged stallions to compete for 

 the pensions offered by the province to the ten best stallions. These 

 pensions are payable one year after date provided the horse remains 

 worthy of it and is still owned in that district. Another district show 

 for matured stallions is one at which each of the best ten are given 

 1,500 francs. Then there is the national show at which all the first 

 prize stallions of the whole nation compete for the national pension. 

 This show like the others, pensions the ten best, the highest being 

 6,000 francs payable in four equal annual payments beginning one 

 year after date. Stallions already drawing a national pension are 

 barred from competing again, but they must appear at this same show 

 in order to draw the annual pension then due to their owners. 



The combined prize and pension money drawn by the better class 

 of stallions of Belgium together with the service fees they earn for 

 their owners amounts to from $3,000 to $12,000 per year. You may 

 think I am exaggerating this, but as a proof I will give for example. 

 Indigene de Fosteau, the prize stallion that was shot by the Germans 

 last month on account of his getting unmanageable while being taken 

 across to Germany. The service fee of this stallion as well as for 

 several other champion stallions of Belgium, was 500 francs for the 

 season, payable in July. The breeding of 100 mares per season is 

 not at all uncommon, making 50,000 francs ($10,000) in service fees 

 and say $2,000 drawn in government pension, district pension, provin- 

 cial annual prize of 1,500 francs and other prizes would make a $12,. 

 000 annual income very common for their best horses. 



By this you will see that we must not wonder at these best breeding 

 horses changing hands among the leading breeders of Belgium at 

 from $15,000 to $30,000. They work these valuable stallions enough 

 to keep the muscles hard and strong. They claim that allowing the 

 muscles of a sire to become soft may have a tendency to cause de- 

 generation. I have seen Paul, the grand champion stallion of Belgium 

 in 1912, out in the field hitched single to a plow and pulling it with 

 perfect ease while the plow was running eight inches deep. 



BREED EXTENSION. 



(By Charles Gray, Chicago, Secretary American Aberdeen Angus Breed- 

 ers' Association, read at the Annual Meeting of the Iowa 

 Aberdeen Angus Association.) 



Extension has become the byword, password and watchword in 

 everything pertaining to education in Iowa. Many states can boast of 

 wonders that have been accomplished by their extension department 

 but none can show by natural and artificial results such a monument 



