CHAPTER XVII. 



BREEDING. 



ONE of the primary points of success in any enterprise 

 is to start right, and in no respect is this more true than in 

 the breeding of horses. The law of like producing like is 

 inexorable ; consequently to raise good horses, good horses 

 must be bred from. Many farmers who are keenly alive 

 to other interests, are singularly thoughtless and imprudent 

 in this. If a mare is broken down, and unfit for labor, no 

 matter how coarse or badly formed she is, or what the 

 evidence of constitutional unsoundness, she is usually 

 reserved to breed from. 



On the same principle, no matter how coarse the 

 stallion, if he is fat and sleek, and if his use can be obtained 

 cheaply, he is selected for the same purpose. The most 

 ignorant farmer is particular to select the largest and 

 soundest potatoes, the best quality of oats, wheat, etc., for 

 seed, because he has learned that this is true economy ; 

 yet there is the utmost disregard of this law of prudence 

 in the breeding of horses and farm-stock in general. This 

 sort of economy is like paying a quarter for a chicken and 

 giving a dollar to get it carried home. 



It costs just as much to raise a poor, coarse-blooded 

 colt, as a fine-blooded one. The cost of feeding and care 

 is really, the same, the only difference being in that of the 

 use of the horse. The first will possibly sell, when five 

 years old and trained to harness, for from a hundred to a 



(537) 



