18 HOW TO BREED A HOBSE. 



advancing every day not in consequence of any casual or 

 temporary caprice, but is attributable to the growing percep- 

 tion of the fact, among all horse-keepers, that it is not only 

 as cheap, if one keeps a horse at all, to keep a good as to 

 keep a bad one, but in reality much cheaper. The prime 

 cost is the only difference to be considered : the price of 

 stable-room, keep and care is identical ; the wear and tear 

 is infinitely less in the sound, able, useful animal than in 

 the broken-down jade ; the work which can be done and 

 the value earned by the one is in no possible relation to 

 those by the other ; while, to conclude, the cash value of the 

 superior animal, judiciously worked, — and by judiciously 

 is meant profitably to the owner, as well as moderately and 

 mercifully to the beast, — and properly tended, is actually 

 increasing annually at a greater rate than that at which the 

 inferior animal is deteriorating. 



In other words, a four-year-old horse, well bought at a 

 price of two or three hundred dollars or upward, will, when 

 he has attained the age of seven or eight years, after hav- 

 ing earned his meat and paid the interest of his prime cost 

 by his services, be worth twice the money, either for work- 

 ing purposes or for sale, if the owner see fit to dispose of 

 him ; while an animal bought for half or a third of that 

 price, at the same age, will probably, at the same increased 

 age, be wholly worn out, valueless and useless; and the 

 greater the excellence of the animal in the first instance, 

 the greater and more rapid will be the increase in value ; 

 the lower his qualities, to begin, the speedier and more 

 complete the deterioration. 



Now, as to what constitutes value or excellence in all 

 horses. — It is indisputably quickness of working ; power 

 to move or carry weight, and ability to endure for a length 

 of time ; to travel for a distance with the least decrease 



