BREEDING OF HORSES. 303 



the road five or six days of the week, is twelve pounds of 

 oats and eight pounds of hay. That is all thej^ get. They 

 weigh now about thirteen hundred pounds apiece. That is 

 not more than two-thirds — it is not much more than half — 

 what the books will tell you ought to be fed to a horse of 

 that weight ; what the Germans put down as a proper sus- 

 taining ration for a horse of that weight. 



We have one colt, a filly, dropped from the older mare 

 this year. At four months old she weighed 375 pounds ; 

 at five months, 502 pounds ; at six months, 610 pounds. 

 There has been no time since she was four months old that 

 you could not put a harness on her and give her a load to 

 draw ; she would draw it as steadily as her mother. More- 

 over, when she is a yearling she will weigh something like a 

 thousand pounds. There is no reason Avhy she would not 

 now work. The older horses have not been shod. The 

 French horses do not always have good feet. They have 

 very broad, spreading feet. There is a greater difference in 

 them in that respect than in any other breed. It is their 

 weakest point generally, — the want of a good hoof to carry 

 their extra size and weight. But from the present appearance 

 of this filly, I am satisfied that she will work on our hard 

 roads without shoes. It is my intention, at an}' rate, to see 

 if she cannot be used right along for several years without 

 shoeing. 



The docility and intelligence of the breed are very remark- 

 able, the handling of both mares and stallions being excep- 

 tionally satisfactory in those particulars, and the great advan- 

 tage being the extra weight and size, without apparently 

 increasing the cost of keeping, and without any loginess or 

 slowness resulting therefrom. 



The stallion, at a time when he weighed sixteen hundred 

 pounds, has served mares weighing nine hundred pounds or 

 less, wi'hout difiiculty, and with perfect gentleness. From 

 all the information that we can obtain, there is more to be 

 expected from the grades than from the full-bloods. A cross 

 of these sires upon good-sized, well-proportioned mares can 

 hardly fail to produce horses that will be extremely useful 

 and very salable anywhere in the Eastern States. I can 

 hardly conceive of a greater public benefaction than the 



