MAEKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 125 



he should be suddenly extinguished the rail- 

 roads would be, temporarily at least, forced out 

 of business for lack of power to transport 

 freight from warehouse or factory to the cars. 

 Of still later years the desire of the great mer- 

 cantile firms to advertise their business by 

 putting good teams of drafters on the streets to 

 make a fine show as well as to haul their heavy 

 loads, and their rivalry to win in the show ring 

 ever since the International Live Stock Exposi- 

 tion was established in Chicago in 1900, has 

 created an insistent and never satisfied demand 

 for these big horses and forced prices skyward 

 to heights little dreamed of in the trade. Con- 

 sistently year after year the heavy drafter holds 

 his pride of place as the horse commanding the 

 most ready sale at prices relatively higher than 

 are brought by any other sort. A farmer can 

 make a larger profit on his draft horses than on 

 any other kind he can breed. 



Weights most favored by purchasers range 

 from 1,800 lb. upward, the limit, so far as I 

 know being, for the International show at least, 

 2,385 lb., which was the weight of Armour's 

 Big Jim in November, 1906. I have heard of 

 stallions alleged to weigh from 2,400 to 2,500 

 pounds, and I believe there are a few such in 

 the country, but Big Jim is the largest horse 

 I have ever seen on the scale. Weights of 

 drafters are usually considered to begin at 

 1,600 pounds, and the greater the weight with 



