2 THE HORSE 



for stout, serviceable horses, and this demand stimulated 

 the importation of well-bred horses and the breeding 

 of what has been erroneously called in modern days 

 "a general -purpose horse." 



The work -horses of America fall naturally into four 

 general groups, each group overlapping the other. 

 Although there are many subgroups, all of these are 

 only connecting links between the four great groups 

 and fall naturally into one, or sometimes, into two of 

 them. 



(1) Heavy draft -horses, designed and adapted for 

 moving heavy loads in cities and forests and at mines. 



(2) Medium draft, usually a mixture of the blood 

 of the smaller individuals of the heavy draft and 

 that of the larger animals of the third group; some- 

 times the blood of the light draft predominates; 

 sometimes that of the lighter and quicker horse which 

 traces back in some lines to oriental or "warm-blooded" 

 ancestors. In many cases, the sires are largely of 

 oriental descent and the dams of mixed draft type or 

 of unknown blood. This group is quite variable, as 

 might be expected from the indiscrimiaate mixing 

 of the warm- (oriental) and cold- (draft) blooded breeds. 

 Perhaps nine -tenths of the farm -horses of America 

 belong to this nondescript class. It furnishes nearly 

 all of the cavalry- and artillery -horses for the army. 

 Since the best specimens of this group, produced by 

 individual enterprise, furnish ample material from which 

 to select, no attempt has been made by the United 

 States government, as in Europe, to encourage the 

 breeding of horses suited to these purposes. Horses 



