212 THE HORSE 



and therefore will have no opportunity to get a glass 

 of beer. If the farmer is breeding roadsters, not in- 

 frequently he will place such exorbitant prices on his 

 colts as to effectually prevent the sale of them. He 

 may ask three or four hundred dollars for a single 

 untrained colt, while, at the same time, he may have 

 reared a calf to the same age and offer it for $25; 

 notwithstanding the fact that the calf has probably 

 cost him one -half as much to produce as the colt. 

 Ability to sell is quite as necessary as ability to pro- 

 duce. Lack of either handicaps the farmer, especially 

 the breeder of live stock. 



The intelligence of the farmer is augmented if he 

 raises such products as require skill and judgment in 

 their production and sale. The fruit-growers are 

 usually intelligent and broad men, because it requires 

 high intelligence to produce good fruits and to sell 

 them to the best advantage. 



If the number of colts which may be produced from 

 four mares and their female progeny in ten years is 

 computed, it will readily be seen that unless many 

 sales are made this kind of horse-breeding will ruin 

 the breeder. Just here is where many men who have 

 added horse-breeding to their other activities have 

 failed. A man will milk cows semi -daily for eight 

 months of the year and secure from them from five to 

 ten per cent profit; but when he offers a colt or a young 

 horse for sale he will put a price on it which includes 

 cost and fifty to one hundred per cent profit. Failing 

 to sell, the animal continues to eat until it "eats up 

 the owner." 



