FALL VERSUS SPRING COLTS 



EdWAUD van AlSTYAE, KiNDEElIOOK, N. Y. 

 Director of Farmers' Institutes 



IS IT PKOFITABLE TO RAISE COLTS ? 



Before attempting to discuss the 

 relative merits of either fall or spring 

 colts, I would tirst take up the proposition 

 of raising colts at all. If I can thereby 

 interest and convince some of my fellow 

 farmers that it is profitable to raise horses 

 for their own use, as well as an occasional 

 one to sell, the number of those who will 

 then be ready to consider the merits of the 

 two seasons will be materially increased. 

 I am writing for the farmer who must keep from two to a 

 half dozen horses to do his work; not for the man who makes 

 horse breeding a specialty. Dr. Warren of Cornell University, 

 in his most practical l)ook on " Farm Management," shows that 

 the horse works only one-third of the time. This makes his service 

 expensive. Even with a better system of farm management, hav- 

 ing a growing season of not to exceed five or six months and at 

 least four months when no work caji. 1)6 done on the land, it will 

 always he a fact that in order to have suthcient horse power to do 

 the work of the farm in proper season, there will of necessity be a 

 period when the horse must be idle. The increased expense of 

 horse labor can be materially reduced if a colt can be credited 

 against it, raised at a time when the horse has least to do. 



We shall always need horse power on the farm, and to purchase 

 one or more horses at rather frequent intervals means a heavy 

 draft on the returns from our money crops. 



On account of the European war wath its destruction of horses 

 and hort-e-raising territory, and the consequent inability to draw 

 from there for the world's supply of horses, the price must con- 

 tinue to be high. 



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