TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 463 



In addition to honors won on this famous gelding American breeders 

 have done much with breeding stock. American-bred Percheron mares 

 have won championship honors at the International seven times out of 

 the eleven shows so far held, though hotly contested by the equine queens 

 of France. In the Internationals of 1906 to 1910 inclusive, considered 

 by good judges to be as strong as any five Percheron shows ever held 

 here or abroad, American-bred mares have won more prizes than the 

 imported ones in classes where both have competed. Considering only 

 the aged, three-year-old and two-year-old mare classes, the American-breds 

 have won thirty-one prizes out of sixty awarded, and three out of five 

 championships. 



The intelligence and ability of American Percheron breeders have been 

 fully demonstrated in the triumphs of geldings and mares, and while 

 so large a measure of success has not been reached in the stallion classes 

 American-bred Percheron colts have in the past two seasons repeatedly 

 demonstrated their right to rank as ribbon winners in the keenest com- 

 petit'on of our greatest shows. Although none has yet won the coveted 

 purple at the International exposition, it will be undoubtedly on'y a 

 matter of a brief time until our breeders will produce a champion stallion. 



American-bred mares running out in pasture from birth to maturity, 

 but Iberally fed are draftier and heavier-boned than those of the old 

 world. Our geldings are reared the same way, and they are unequaled. 

 The riaajority of American-bred "stallion colts, 'however, are confined to 

 small lots,- or to the barn after they are yearlings. This is a hint to 

 the wise. 



"America's horsemen have far more to learn from the old world In 

 feeding than in breeding" is the oft reiterated statement of R. B. Og'lvie, 

 who has bred .and fed many of the greatest Clydesdales ever seen In 

 American show-rings. It was one of the colts of his breeding that won 

 championship honors at the International, and he was both "bred and 

 fed." That the "laird of Blairgowrie" is right, no one familiar with 

 the situation can doubt. 



For forty year's we have been drawing freely on Europe for draft stock, 

 and for the past ten years it may fairly be said that importers have 

 brought many of the best representatives of each breed. Our farmers 

 on the average are more intelligent and more af^entive to the fine points 

 in' breeding than the horsemen of the mother countries. The American's 

 success in breeding cattle, sheep and swine, equal or superior to any 

 produced elsewhere in the world, demonstrates his knowledge of breeding, 

 and as he has had the best seed stock in horses from abroad, it is evi- 

 dent that the chief fault is in feeding the colts bred. 



The yearling Percheron colts shown in the National Futuri*^y Stakes at 

 the Iowa State Fair this past season would average over 1,400 pounds 

 each, and none of these colts was over twenty months old. The twelve 

 winners must have averaged close to 1,500 pounds each, for there were 

 a number in the line with weight in excess of that; and it must be borne 

 in mind that these colts were not fat, but were large of frame and 

 strong of bone, lusty, well muscled youngsters that had been Ifberally 



