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LIVE STOCK. 387 



According to the census of i860, there were 6,249,174 horses 

 in the United States, equal in value to at least one-fourth of the 

 present national debt ; and, in addition to these, there were prob- 

 ably over one million mules (1,151,148 asses and mules). Of 

 course, so far as the more settled parts of the country are con- 

 cerned, a very large proportion of the horses are in use upon 

 farms ; and their chief value to most farmers consists in their 

 ability to do his work. At the same time, in addition to this and 

 incidental to it, the very large demand for horses for work, and 

 for pleasure-driving in cities and towns, creates such a market for 

 them, among those who are not engaged in their production, that 

 the sale of the increase of farm stock is a great source of agricultural 

 profit ; and wherever a farmer is so circumstanced that he can 

 raise a few colts without inconvenience, he will generally find it 

 advisable to have a large proportion of mares among his working 

 teams. 



The breeding of horses in this country has generally been car- 

 ried on in a most careless and haphazard way. Any broken- 

 down, spavined, heavy old mare, that ought to be knocked on 

 the head, — that certainly would not, for general use, be worth 

 keeping, — is usually considered good enough to get colts from. 

 And this accounts for the fact that all persons who are familiar 

 with the horses raised in this country consider it advantageous to 

 buy rather old animals, with the idea that if they have passed their 

 seventh or eighth year without developing a congenital disease, 

 they may be depended on for a fair amount of service ; — and the 

 immense number of five and six year old horses that go blind or 

 lame, or get broken-winded, is a very severe comment on the 

 ordinary policy of farmers in raising horses. 



The rule that " like begets like " holds in no case with greater 

 force than in the breeding of horses ; and we may, with the same 

 reason, expect healthy children from scrofulous and consumptive 

 parents, as sound colts from unsound mothers. 



There are many imperfections, to which horse-flesh is subject, 



