472 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AQRICDLTURB 



mixed blood, starts to grade-r.p by mating them with a pure-bred Percheron 

 stallion, that breed should be used right along, year after year, until all 

 of the native, or mixed blood has been overcome and obliterated by the 

 Perc^ieron blood. This is to be done by castrating and selling all of the 

 male progeny and weeding out all poor individuals of the female progeny; 

 thea mating the selected grade Allies each time with Percheron stallions. 

 As already stated, at least five top-crosses of pure Percheron blood must 

 be used in this way to obtain practically pure bred Percheron stoclv from 

 a scrub or mixed-bred foundation and. when these crosses have been put 

 on, the owner would be foolish indeed to mar it by the admixture of alien 

 blood. The same principle applies to whatever breed of horses is started 

 with. That breed should be persisted with until its characteristics pre- 

 dominate in the blood of the entire horse-stock of the farm, and if the 

 breed commenced with was suitable for the district and the market and 

 the horses in general were fully fed for perfect development and obtained 

 from sound sires and dams, the resultant stock would be marketable at 

 remunerative prices to buyers of the particular class of horses bred. Dur- 

 ing the grading-up process every out-cross to a sire of other blood than the 

 one commenced with will set the entire operation back to where it started. 

 Should a number of outcrosses be made the process is not grading-up 

 but standing still, or retrogressing, and the stock bred will have neither 

 definite character nor certain value. 



We have been using pure-bred sires, to a greater or less extent, for 

 upwards of fifty years, yet few, if any, districts have persistently used 

 such sires in a right line until the character and quality of any one breed 

 have become predominant and the breeding district consequently noted 

 as a center for excellent horses of the breed chosen and, therefore, attrac- 

 tive to the buyer in need of that market commodity. In Wisconsin, as 

 elsewhere, we should have many centers noted for the annual production 

 of numbers of horses of standard breed, quality and character and we can 

 in time create numerous centers of this kind by uniformity and persist- 

 ency in breeding. 



The success achieved in the breeding of Clydesdale horses in Canada 

 serves as a good example of what can be accomplished by persistency and 

 expert selection. The Scottish element of the Dominion's population has 

 been partial to the Clydesdale breed and conversant with its good quali- 

 ties and utility, hence imported Clydesdale stallions of the best character 

 have been largely employed in the breeding operations of that country 

 since the year 1842. Practically speaking, no alien crosses have been 

 made, and the average farmer has been capable of selecting suitable mares 

 and of adequately developing their progeny. The result is that Canada 

 has but one type of draft horses, and it is a good one, showing, to a high 

 degree of excellence, all of the breed characteristics of the pure-bred 

 Clydesdale. This fact becomes evident and is interesting to one who 

 stands on a street corner in Toronto and watches the team horses as they 

 pass. That they are largely uniform in type, color, conformation, weight 

 and action is most striking and speaks well for the intelligence and enter- 

 prise of Canadian horse-breeders. The same thing is true, to an even 



