22 BREEDING AND REARING OF 



all of their dams' milk, he would give them warm 

 milk from a cow, and at weaning time they were of 

 fine size, looking well. He succeeded in selling them 

 for $500, each, making $1,000 a year. Major Knox 

 saw what his old neighbor was doing, and went to 

 consult his father, and he told his son that he was 

 doing very well, and he thought it was well enough to 

 let well enough alone. But Major Knox said that 

 the old man who owned the jennets was doing nothing 

 but smoke his pipe and feed the jennets and caress 

 the colts, while he (Knox) and a negro man he had 

 hired to help him make corn and raise hogs, were 

 beaten so badly in making money that he would act 

 contrary to his father's advice. So he bought two 

 jennets that he thought a little superior to his neigh- 

 bor's. He also bred them to the best jennet jack he 

 could find. The Major was succeeding finely when 

 the Civil War came on in 1861. He had succeeded in 

 selling $10,000 worth of jack and jennet stock in one 

 year, and had increased his farm from fifty to one 

 hundred and fifty acres, and his land then worth $150 

 per acre. He made the jack and jennet stock a 

 specialty, taking premiums wherever he showed his 

 stock. Never overstocking himself, he did not have 

 more stock than he could keep in first-class order. 

 So when a customer would call to see his stock he 

 could show to the best advantage. I remember visit- 

 ing his farm on one occasion when the Major was 

 absent, but his interest was well represented by his 

 most excellent wife. She had the groom to lead the 

 stock up to the yard and had them shown to the best 

 advantage. She was familiar with the merits of the 

 stock and nothing was lost by the owner's being 

 absent. 



