OBJECTS OF BREEDING FOUNG 213 



If the colts or undesirable brood -mares become too 

 numerous and the pastures too short, trade in August 

 for a pair of bob-sleds, and get "boot." They will, at 

 least, not "eat their heads off." The next winter some 

 one will want the sleds. Or trade for hogs, cattle or 

 sheep. These may be killed and disposed of, and the 

 apparently endless chain is broken. The thrift of the 

 New Englander is due, it is said, to his skill in 

 swapping jack-knives. It is even recorded that a 

 family of boys traded watches among themselves one 

 entire winter and each made not less than five dollars. 

 There is always a person somewhere who wants the 

 very thing you have, find him. 



The two-year-old fillies which have the promise of 

 developing into good brood-mares should be bred at 

 about two years of age, and again at three years old. 

 They may produce two foals each in this time, and a 

 fair test will have been made of their breeding qualities. 

 It is probable that their offspring will not be quite so 

 good as it would have been had they been older; but 

 it is of the utmost importance that they be set at their 

 life-work when young if they are to be developed into 

 superior brood-mares. The same principle should be 

 observed with brood-mares as in the production of 

 dairy -cows. After the second foal is weaned they may 

 be trained for work. 



If they prove unsatisfactory as mothers, by proper 

 feeding they may be made to take the general form of 

 mares which have not produced, when they may be 

 sold or exchanged, being yet in the fifth year and 

 quite young enough for city use. 



