FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART I. 7. 



A Member : I would like to ask about what price the average 

 farmer could afford to pay for these mares to put upon the 

 farm? 



Mr. McMillan: Of course much depends upon the situation 

 of each particular individual. [ may say generally, that in my 

 opinion, the present price of draft mares is entirely too low. I 

 judge largely from the prices I have obtained myself at the pub- 

 lic auctions I have held. I have held five annual sales of 

 Percheron horses, mostly mares. These mares have sold at 

 at prices ranging from two hundred and fifty to four hundred 

 and fifty dollars, averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of 

 three hu];idred dollars each ; good mares, say four or five years 

 old. 



I believe that any intelligent farmer that knows how to handle 

 horses could well afford to take a pair of good draft mares, 'say 

 four or five years old, and pay one thousand dollars for the pair. 

 I believe it would be as good an investment as a good shorthorn 

 cow at one hundred dollars; I think they would pay a good 

 interest on the investment. 



We do not appreciate the value of good draft mares in this 

 country yet, but we soon will. Now, since 1892 there have 

 been practically no draft mares imported, because the people of 

 this country are not willing to pay the prices justifying their im- 

 portation . Draft mares today, in England and France, are higher 

 than in this country. It seems to me strange that farmers and 

 breeders will go out £.nd pay all the way from one thousand to 

 three thousand dollars for a stallion, and yet they hesitate and 

 think the price is high when the mother of these stallions sells 

 for three hundred to five hundred dollars, I have not been in 

 France myself, but have talked with a great many importers 

 and people acquainted with the methods there. I am told that 

 in France the farmers, the men who work the land, have all these 

 Percheron mares; that these men who you see named as im- 

 porting breeders as a matter of fact do not raise these colts at 

 all, but they are raised by the individual farmers, who has a 

 team or two teams ; the man named as breeder being the owner 

 of the stallion, he having an arrangement with the owners of the 

 mares, and he having the privilege of selecting from the colts 

 such as meet the demands of his trade. So that the farmers 

 raise these colts and then the dealer buys them and feeds them 

 and gets them in condition to sell to the American buyer. 



