TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 465 



A sound, purebred stallion that is true to type and a good 

 individual in every way is the only kind worthy of patronage. 

 If there is no such horse in the community, it will pay to ship 

 the mares a long distance to reach such a one. If possible, 

 it is always best to patronize a stallion that has proved him- 

 self a sure breeder and a getter of good foals. There would not 

 be the great number of unsound, mongrel, and inferior stallions 

 standing for public service if there did not exist a demand for 

 them on the part of mare owners. There can be only one expla- 

 nation so far as the owner of the mare is concerned, and that is 

 the saving in the amount of the service fee; but no more short- 

 sighted practice can be followed, it having been demonstrated 

 in almost every community that the added value of the foal 

 from a high-class stallion, as compared with the foal by a cheap 

 horse, repays the extra service fee many times over. It costs 

 little more to raise a good foal than an inferior one, and the 

 foal by the cheap stallion is not ordinarily a profit maker. So 

 many breeders have shown a lack of judgment in this matter, 

 and horse stocks have deteriorated to such an extent in some 

 states on account of the large number of mares bred to cheap 

 horses, that stallion laws have been enacted which debar un- 

 sound stallions from public service, and require that placards 

 be posted on the stable door telling whether the stallion is a 

 purebred, cross-bred, grade, or mongrel. Every state needs a 

 law of this kind, modified to suit its needs. 



Results of careless breeding. Another evil in need of 

 remedy is the too common practice of mixing the types of horses. 

 Heavy mares are mated with trotting stallions in order to pro- 

 duce an animal for road use, or with no particular idea in the 

 mind of the mare owner except to "get a colt." Light-weight, 

 light-boned mares, without any semblance of draft qualities, 

 are mated with draft stallions in the hope of getting a draft 

 foal, or again simply to "get a colt." The results of such breed- 

 ing are to be seen on every hand in the country, and a visit to 

 any large horse market reveals the fact that a large percentage 

 of the animals offered for sale are of no particular type or market 

 class, because they have a variegated ancestry, the result of 

 indiscriminate crossing of heavy and light horses. One is at a 

 loss sometimes to know by what method some market offerings 

 were produced. The result is a lot of cheap horses adapted to 

 no particular work, which net the producer a loss in most cases 

 and seldom yield a profit. Breeders must learn to stick to type. 



