4 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The President: Before we proceed with our regular pro- 

 gram, I want to say that after each paper or address, a reason- 

 able time will be given for a discussion thereof, and any one de- 

 siring to ask questions may do so. 



The next subject is entitled "Draft Horses," by H. G. Mc- 

 Millan, of Cedar Rapids, a gentlemen who is not an importer, 

 but a breeder of draft horses and Shorthorn cattle. 



DRAFT HORSES. 



H. G. M'mILLAN, cedar RAPIDS, IOWA. 



The breeding of draft horses is rapidly becoming one of the most im- 

 portant as well as one of the most profitable branches of animal husbandry. 

 Notwithstanding the advent of the electric car, the automobile and other 

 inventions for carrying both passengers and freight, the demand for draft 

 horses has constantly increased. In fact, the demand has increased much 

 more rapidly than the supply and as a consequence prices for really first class 

 drafters are higher than ever before known in this country. 



The fear that draft horses would be superseded by electricity as a motive 

 power has proven to be without any foundation whatever, statistics showing 

 that notwithstanding the use of electricity and other motive powers, more 

 draft horses are now being used in all the principal towns and cities, in pro- 

 portion to the population, than ever before. This statement might at first 

 be doubted but a little reflection will satisfy any one that this is true. It is 

 only necessary to call attention to a few instances where draft horses are 

 now being used by the thousands where not many years ago they were hardly 

 used at all. ' 



It is but a short time since the Standard Oil Company shipped practi- 

 cally all their product in barrels to the retail trade. Now this is entirely 

 done away with, their oil being shipped in tanks to principal stations and 

 delivered to all small towns and even to the farm house door with the best 

 draft teams they can buy. 



All the large packers now have refrigerator houses in the larger towns 

 and deliver their dressed meats in heavy wagons to the retail markets. The 

 brewers also have their refrigerator stations at all convenient points and 

 deliver their product by teams in the same manner. 



I might go on and enumerate other instances almost without end where 

 draft horses are now being used in great numbers where ten years ago they 

 were hardly used at all. In the draft horse business it is no longer a question 

 of demand but a question of supply. Where are the drafters to come from 

 now so eagerly sought by the buyers at all the horse markets? Never was 

 there such a scarcity of good ones. While the trade in draft stallions has 

 been active for the past four or five years and there are now many good ones 

 scattered over the country, the supply of heavy mares is very limited. 



The farmers who owned them sent them to market a few years ago be- 

 cause they thought the days of profitable-horse raising had passed for all 

 time. As a result of this unwise policy, before an adequate supply of 

 drafters can again be supplied and placed upon the market, many draft 



