EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 537 



does not buy feed but depends upon what he raises on his farm. I think 

 oats are about the best feed for the brood mare. Always be kind and 

 gentle to the brood mare. If you are otherwise she may become very 

 nervous. 



When the colt is old enough and will eat oats, do not be stingy with 

 them. Ten dollars' worth of oats at the present prices will go a long way 

 toward giving him all the oats he will eat during the first winter, and 

 the first winter with a colt comes very near determining his fate. If he 

 is half starved, gets lousy, etc., it is next to impossible for him to ever 

 make the horse he would make with extra care during his first year. Of 

 course you can not do it all during the first year, you should be just as 

 particular with him each year until maturity. 



The draft colt as a rule is easily broken but should become accustomed 

 to being handled from the very start. Halter them when only a few days 

 old and keep them familiar with the halter and you will avoid a great 

 deal of trouble that you otherwise would experience if he is left until he 

 is two or three years of age. Train your draft horses before they are 

 matured. 



Will it pay the average farmer to keep pure-bred draft mares? 



How is this question to be answered? Can you, farmer friends, answer 

 it? No, we can not. We can not because the average farmer is not 

 keeping pure-bred mares, consequently our answer would be only guess 

 work. We can only give our opinions and that is what I shall en- 

 deavor to do. 



The average farmer! Who is the average farmer? He is the farmer, 

 generally who does not have eight hundred, ten hundred or twelve hun- 

 dred dollars to invest in two or three pure-bred draft mares and wait 

 from three to five years for any returns on the investment. 



There are several reasons why the average farmer does not invest 

 in pure-bred draft mares. In the first place if he has a few hundred 

 dollars lying idle he can invest where he can get quicker returns. 

 Secondly, there are great risks to run. Your mares are liable to get 

 in a barbed wire fence and lose their lives. There is great danger of 

 loss at foaling time. You may lose the mare, or you may lose her foal, or 

 you may lose them both. It may seem strange to some people that the 

 average farmer is not keeping pure-bred draft mares just the same as 

 he is keeping pure-bred cattle and pure-bred hogs. But it is not so 

 strange when one stops to consider the question. While it requires 

 less capital to engage in raisng pure bred cattle and still less to raise 

 pure-bred hogs, it is a safer proposition and the returns come sooner. 



The price of horses fluctuates more than on other stock, but when a 

 farmer once enters into the business of raising pure-bred draft horses he 

 should make up his mind to stay right by it. 



When we consider that $1,000 put into a couple of pure-bred draft 

 mares, some extra money in the proper kind of fences, etc., and wait 

 four or five years for any returns, knowing as we do, that the same 

 money invested in cattle, sheep, hogs or poultry will give quick and cer- 

 tain profits, is it any wonder that there are so few average farmers 

 branching out into this kind of business. 



