MAKKET CLASSES OF HOKSES. 



129 



Chicago for $290. It was current comment at 

 the time that if the gelding had been fat he 

 would have sold for $400 or more. Had the 

 farmer put the extra flesh on the horse he would 

 have been paid probably $350, the shipper 

 would have made a larger profit and the buyer 

 would have been better pleased. According to 

 these figures 40 or 50 bushels of grain fed to 

 this horse would have paid a dollar a bushel 

 and a net profit of $50 besides to the breeder. 

 The men who make a business of "feeding out" 

 drafters know the value of fat. If these profes- 

 sionals can afford to pay from $200 to $250 or 

 even more for thin horses, ship them home, 

 fatten them, ship them back to market, pay com- 

 missions and make a profit in the end, surely 

 the farmer can do much better when he can 

 save all the expenses incident to such transac- 

 tions. Therefore the farmer will make money 

 by seeing to it that his horses are fat when he 

 offers 'them for sale and this is true not alone 

 of drafters but of all other horses as well. 



Finally in order that farmers may get a cor- 

 rect idea of the drafters that bring the big 

 money and of the kind they should strive to 

 produce there is no method of education so good 

 as attendance at the International Live Stock 

 Exposition and other shows at which drafters 

 are exhibited in numbers, and thorough investi- 

 gation of the everyday demands of the market 

 at any one of the wholesale centers preferably 



