584 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



given for needed exercise, and yet not to tax, but rather 

 strengthen and develop her powers. 



Like the heifer, her ability to give milk to her young, and 

 to give birth to it with least tax, are important factors in mak- 

 ing up her value. The three-year-old mare can safely be bred 

 to foal in the spring of her fourth year. Her form and size 

 and strength will not be injured thereby, but her usefulness as 

 a brood-mare will be greatly enhanced. She can produce a colt 

 of high vigor and power, and at a period of life when she could 

 not properly be taxed to do full labor. Economy, then, shows 

 that the mare can well be put to breeding at three years. Her 

 strength is not over-taxed, her usefulness not diminished, and 

 her distended form, after the foal has been dropped, will resume 

 her normal shape more quickly than if not distended until all the 

 frame and muscles have been fixed and set, and growth has 

 ceased. It is a generally accepted truth that the foal of a 

 young mare is of more value than of one that is old or on 

 the decline. 



Aged Brood-mares. Mares usually breed quite regularly 

 until they are sixteen or eighteen years old. There are many 

 cases on record of their breeding well until twenty-five years. 

 The U. S. Veterinary Journal gives a case where the mare is 

 estimated to be between thirty-seven and forty years old, and 

 has a yearling by her side, and she is heavy in foal. She never 

 was known to be sick; her teeth are sound, and she eats well. 

 She is of racing blood, sorrel in color, and has white points. 

 She was owned by William Rogers, who now has six of her 

 colts on his farm, ranging in age from one to twelve years. 



Sex Can it be Controlled? From earliest times, the 

 question of controlling the sex of coining offspring has been a 

 study, and there have always been those who claimed it was a 

 matter subject to control of the skillful breeder. 



But as yet, no physiologist h;is been so skillful as to find 

 at what period in its history the ovum, from the time it left 

 the ovaries of the mother, met the spermatozoa of the father, 

 on down to the birth, nor has been able to note the influence 

 which gave the character of male or female to the offspring. 



