LONGEVITY OF TI1E THOEOUGHBEED. 125 



be increased. The prejudice existing here against using 

 corn as food for horses may have arisen from good 

 causes, as there is a vast difference between the flint vari- 

 eties, and the larger, softer grain grown at the South and 

 "West. I am well satisfied that good horses can be reared 

 on dent corn, having seen many that were called on to go 

 both "fast and far" that never were fed a pound of any 

 other kind of grain. Still my plan would be to feed a 

 variety ; and as all kinds can be grown in Iowa with a 

 tithe of the labor bestowed in the East, we need not re- 

 strict them to either corn or oats. With one of the two 

 horse corn-plows, now in general use, one man and a 

 pair of horses can plant and cultivate in the best manner 

 eighty acres of corn. 



I find there is also a belief here sanctioned by the 

 writings of a man who has long stood at the head of 

 the list as a driver of trotters that feeding grain as prac- 

 ticed by the best feeders of racing colts is detrimental. 



In proof of which, the withdrawal of horses from the 

 running turf, when comparatively young, is instanced, 

 claiming that, because they come to maturity earlier, they 

 will likewise sooner decay. This is not in accordance 

 with proof from the record, which will distinctly show 

 that the thoroughbred lives longer than members of any 

 other family of the equine species, owing to an inherent 

 heartiness of constitution, and the care taken to nurture 

 him well when young. I remember taking from the old 

 Turf Kegister of 183-, the first twenty names from an 

 obituary list of blood stallions. Their average age was 

 twenty-two years. In the same magazine, there was a 

 history of American Eclipse from the pen of his breeder. 

 He gave the amount of grain he was fed daily from the 

 time of weaning till he was put in train, and it was a very 

 liberal allowance. As he lived to nearly forty years, it 

 will not require long arguments to show that the feed dH 



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