CoMMUXiTY Effort in Draft Horse Breeding 217 



nlmost entirely lost to their breeds because of having been sold 

 to individuals or companies who stood them in out-of-the-way 

 neighborhoods which did not possess any good draft mares. This, 

 however, is not so likely to happen now as formerly. Even the 

 good stallion cannot do it all; the dams must be right as well. 

 The practice of selling off all the mares that the horse buyer will 

 take at a good price and preserving the culls for breeding pur- 

 poses, makes for inferiority in the succeeding generations. In 

 the corn belt, the best heavy geldings are produced in those sec- 

 tions where it has been difficult to buy the best of the mares on 

 account of their value being properly appreciated. One section 

 in Illinois, with which the writer is familiar, is justly famous for 

 producing good, big horses, because they have not only used the 

 best sires that could be gotten, but because a concerted effoit has 

 been made by the local horsemen to prevent the good producing 

 mares from being shipped out of that locality. Other sections 

 containing as good or better land, and fully as good sires, have 

 not been so successful beca"'jse of failing to keep the mares that 

 were capable of producing round draft horses of the correct type. 



NUMBER HIGHLY IMPORTANT 



The number of draft horses in one community which are 

 similar in type and breeding is an important factor. The selection 

 of the tops from a few good ones is not nearly so efficient in the 

 work of improvement as is the selection of tops from a large 

 number of good individuals. In a progressive breeding com- 

 munity, affording as it does a chance to use choice pure-bred sires, 

 the best of drafters can be produced by the small farmer who does 

 his work with a few brood mares. Furthermore, such a system 

 means cheaper production than can be the case where breeding is 

 conducted on such a scale as necessitates the keej)ing of a large 

 numbers of mares idle. Again, the idle draft mare is not likely 

 to be so regTilar a breeder as is her sister that is regularly worked 

 — with proper judgment, of course — on the land. When the 

 number of sires is such as to enable the mare o-^mer to have the 

 choice of several cood breeding horses with which to mate his dif- 

 ferent mares, he will then have opportunity for the greatest success, 

 provided the mating'is skillfully done. It is well known that even 



