HERDS AND FLOCKS AND HORSES. 21 



ANOTHER SIDE OF THE BREEDING QUESTION. 



raising of beef, mutton and pork, is only one side of 

 X the great live stock industry of this nation, the other 

 allied side being the breeding of horses ; and great, and 

 all important as the former may be, no less necessary in many 

 ways is the latter. 



Horses, and particularly the heavy draught breeds, are in- 

 dispensable to the requirements of the country, and particu- 

 larly in the great agricultural West and the large cities, where 

 heavy horse power is absolutely necessary, and will continue 

 to be necessary, notwithstanding the motor vehicle and every 

 other kind of mechanical contrivance. 



This generation, and another and another, and yet many 

 more, will have passed into oblivion before the usefulness of 

 the horse begins to show the faintest signs of wavering. He 

 is more in demand today than ever before in his history, not- 

 withstanding statements to the contrary; and his price is 

 greater than it has ever been. So much are heavy draught 

 horses of the Shire, Clydesdale, Percheron and Belgian breeds 

 in demand, that importers are not able to meet the calls upon 

 them, and their breeding in this country is in such a state of 

 infantile helplessness that it actually amounts to nothing. 

 Scrub and grade horses are bred, it is true, but their days are 

 numbered, for in the course of general advancement and im- 

 provement, they will pass from our sight and die the death 

 that everything meets that does not keep pace with the general 

 and overpowering demand for better things. 



The markets of England and Scotland, those mothers of 

 heavy draught horse breeding of the Shire and Clyde families, 

 and France and Belgium as the birthplace of those honest 

 slaves, the Percheron and Belgian breeds, are ever open to the 

 buyers of the world, and it is for the American purchaser to 

 not only buy, but to purchase the very best that each country 

 provides, and to lay the foundation for a heavy draught horse 

 industry with sound parent stock, and in time, make foreign 



