CHAPTER XXVI 

 PRACTICAL HORSE BREEDING 



The average farmer has constant use for his horses 

 approximately one-half of the year, during which time 

 they are often overworked because of insufficient horse 

 power. The remainder of the year the cost of maintain- 

 ing the animals often exceeds the value of their services. 

 This is likely to be the case on farms where horses are 

 kept simply for the work they can do. On the other 

 hand, there are many very successful farmers who keep 

 sufficient animals to do the work without rushing, even 

 during the busy seeding and harvest season. On such 

 farms mares are usually kept and in order to make them 

 earn their keep during the idle season, they are bred, 

 thus producing a colt in addition to the work. The 

 money obtained from the sale of horses produced in this 

 way will fully compensate for the extra horses, and for 

 the maintenance of all horse stock during the idle season. 

 Thus, instead of purchasing a team every few years, as 

 is the custom on so many farms at the present time, the 

 horse-breeding farmer has an income from the sale of 

 surplus stock. 



Number of horses produced. — There are no data avail- 

 able in the United States on the number of horses con- 

 sumed, or used up, in a year, but conservative estimates 

 place it at approximately two million. In addition to the 

 horses consumed at home there are a few exported. These 

 animals must be replaced or there will be a horse famine. 

 There are approximately lo million mares on farms in 

 the United States, of which we will assume that one-half, 

 or five million, are of breeding age. If we are to produce 

 more than two million colts it means that something like 

 one-half of these mares must be bred each year. 



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