PREFACE 



It has been the author's pui^ose to emphasize industry as 

 applied to horses. If the production, marketing, and use of 

 horses were regarded as an industry and conducted more gen- 

 erally along business lines, with a definite purpose in view, more 

 uniform results could be obtained and with greater profit to 

 those engaged. 



It is quite generally conceded that the investigations of the 

 experiment stations, as well as the instruction in the schools and 

 colleges, have been more exhaustive in their application to cattle, 

 hogs, sheep, and poultry than to horses. This is unrepresenta- 

 tive of the importance of the horse industry and inadequate to 

 its needs. The aimless, hit or miss, haphazard system prevails 

 in the production of horses more than in any other class of live 

 stock ; the scrub stallion is less in disrepute than the scrub bull, 

 and most producers of market cattle, hogs, or sheep devote them- 

 selves more intelligently to their enterprise than do the breeders 

 of horses. 



Commonly the original producer receives a lower percentage 

 of the price which a horse ultimately brings than is the case with 

 most market products. Indifference to market demands and lack 

 of information concerning the best means of meeting the require- 

 ments are largely responsible for the advantage of the middle- 

 man. In fact, they constitute the principal asset of a certain 

 class of dealers who derive their profits in direct proportion to 

 the ignorance of those from whom they buy and to whom they 

 sell. 



J^otwithstanding the keen competition between the horse and 

 the motor in some fields, the horse business in general is on a 

 sound basis and bids fair to continue so, as far as can be fore- 

 seen. But to successfully compete requires most careful atten- 

 tion to detail. Economic efficiency is the standard by which com- 

 parisons are made. Science and system must govern in the 

 profitable production of market horses and their subsequent 

 service. 



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