304 



MANAGEMENT AND BREEDING OF HORSES 



this variety of work many farmers have sought to pro- 

 duce a general-purpose horse, by which is meant an 

 animal of all work. Since there is no breed of all-work 

 horses, our farmers have taken it upon themselves to 

 produce such animals by making various sorts of crosses. 

 No doubt much of the indiscriminate crossing, which has 

 resulted in our heterogeneous array of horse stock, was 

 done in the hope of producing a general-purpose horse. 



FIG. 144.— SHIRE STALLIONS SUITABLE FOR BREEDING FARM OR 

 MARKET HORSES 



It often happens that a breeder has made a very good 

 start in developing a certain type of horse, say, a driving 

 animal, when he concludes that the horse is too light to 

 draw a plow and consequently mates with a draft horse in 

 the hope of obtaining an offspring possessing the action 

 of the roadster and something of the size and strength of 

 the draft horse. On the other hand, another farmer may 

 have developed a draft strain, when he concludes his 

 animals are too hea\'y for the road and mates with a 

 trotting horse. The offspring in either case proves a 



