602 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The question of disease is one perhaps that will most vitally interest 

 the stallion owners of the state. It is article three of the law which re- 

 quires earnest consideration and the division of these diseases perhaps 

 would vary in the minds of the different men. On the whole they are 

 perhaps as well as you could possibly arrange, although I am frank to 

 say in the original drafted form it was not quite as stringent as it now 

 appears. A good many of the breeders in the state and the farmers as 

 well objected to leaving the two spavins in the list of disqualifications. 

 In fact the bill would not have passed the house two years ago unless 

 those two diseases or unsoundnesses were placed in the first lines of the 

 law. It was my opinion to leave them optional and allowing the horse 

 to stand on the minor difficulties but it was written in the law and pos- 

 sibly for that reason I do not think you will find one single disease or 

 common unsoundness in that list but what is transmissable. Not one. 

 You men who are breeders ought to know that a stallion that has a curb 

 or bog spavin has unusual weakness in that particular place so that in 

 a majority of the cases the progeny of that animal will be weakened in that 

 particular part. And that is one thing we want to get away from in 

 breeding animals of any description in this state and particularly horses. 



We want a class of horses in this state so that when we have a buyer 

 come into our yards from Chicago we wont have to make an excuse for 

 a horse for this thing and that, but we want the kind that is clean and 

 sound so that when we have raised him to four or five years old and he 

 goes on to the market he will sell from $250 to $300 instead of $50 or 

 $75. That was the idea we had in passing this stallion law. We are 

 striving to have in this state the best horses that grow, the best cattle, 

 the best hogs and the best men and women and in order to do that we 

 must have the best kind of stock to commence with. I do not believe you 

 can make these laws too stringent. To be sure some individuals, as I 

 said before, are bound to be hurt in some way. A horse may have some 

 accident and develop some weakness, a constitutional deficiency that will 

 prevent him from being registered. In that particular instance it would 

 be well to allow him to go on as a breeder. But just as soon as you open 

 that door to that man you will open a door for other men who can claim 

 most any thing. We are making a law for the people and not the indi- 

 vidual. We want to make that law so stringent that there will be no 

 question about it. One great difficulty in making laws is to make them 

 clear enough. You want them written so clear and plain and written in 

 the Anglo-Saxon language so you will know what it means. There is no 

 question about what this law means, you can read, it is as I say and there 

 it ends. 



I do not know whether it would be wise for me to go on and take up 

 the law further or not. You have it there in your hands. In the draft- 

 ing of the law it Vv^as the idea of those of us that were trying to make 

 a law for the benefit of the state to lay as much importance as possible 

 on the registered animal. We want to do away with the use of grade 

 stock in this state by all means. I want to say that the record you find 

 in the herd books of this state or country is no more or less than the 

 honesty of the man who raises the animal. You can go yourself and 



