FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 379 



them the right kind of feed and enough of it from weanlings onward, and 

 do not worry about the automobile or any other newfangled invention ever 

 taking the place of the draft horse. There will always be a market for 

 them both in this country and abroad, and there has never yet been a time 

 when there were too many good ones. 



Let the farmer figure out how to raise the good ones and pay no attention 

 to the probable price three, four, five or six years hence, when they are fit 

 to go on the city market. Sound political economy requires the draft colt 

 to be put to work when two years old, kept two or three years on the farm 

 and he is then fit for service in the city. When our horse industry is put on 

 the proper basis the farmer will raise the colt until he is three years old and 

 sell him to some other farmer who does not care to raise colts but who can 

 give them proper farm work until they are fit to go on the city market at a 

 price in advance of that which he originally paid. He can thus get his work 

 done on the farm for the interest on the money plus the risk of injury. 



Before, however, we can grow even draft horses to advantage, we must 

 get the farm fenced with something else than barbed wire fences. The 

 damage to horses alone on the farms in the west for the last ten years would 

 pay two or three times bank interest on the difference between the cost of 

 barbed wire and a woven wire fence. 



ACTION IN HORSES 



F. C. Grenside, V. S., New York County, N. V., in Breeders' Gazette. 



The character of the action is a very important factor in determining the 

 amount of wear and tear a horse will stand. The acquisition of a knowledge 

 of action, or in other words, to become a good judge of action, is not such 

 an easy matter as might be imagined. There are many who have a good 

 eye for a horse, and in fact are in a measure good judges, who can not 

 intelligently criticize a horse's action from different standpoints. 



There are many who are taken with flashy action. Flashiness of action as 

 a rule enhances the market value of a horse that possesses it but it is very 

 apt to be associated with greater defects from a utilitarian standpoint than 

 that which is less attractive. In estimating the quality of action correctly in 

 different individuals one has to have an ideal. How seldom in sitting behind 

 a horse and closely observing his way of going, at the trot and walk, do we 

 find action that comes up to our ideal. Perfect action, as far as usefulness 

 is concerned, is frictionless and light, and the foot is placed on the ground 

 squarely. There is no loss of time or power in progression, or in other 

 words, the frictionless mover does not labor, neither does the light stepper 

 experience the ill effects of concussion, the result of bringing the foot to the 

 ground in a pounding manner. What a saving of wear and tear and power 

 the smooth mover and light stepper experience! One is amazed in instances 

 to observe how much work a weak-footed, poor-legged horse will stand and 

 still remain in workable condition; but it can be accounted for in many cases 

 by the defects mentioned being compensated for by light action. It is 

 interesting and instructive to study the numerous and varying conditions 



