CHAPTER XXI 
THE STALLION 
Goop sires have wrought a wonderful improvement in 
the quality of Western horses, and the margin of profit 
between the cost of raising a good pure-bred stallion and 
the income derived from the increased value of his colts 
has been tremendous. This margin, however, has been 
largely lost to the farmers, owing on the one hand to the 
exploitation of the business by dealers and on the other 
to the indifferent care given the stallions themselves. 
The stallion business is a fertile field for improvements — 
improvements that cost little money and bring big 
returns. 
METHODS OF BUYING 
Two general methods of purchasing stallions are prefer- 
able to most persons. These are privately owned stallions 
which stand for public service throughout the neighbor- 
hood, and company stallions which are owned by a company 
of neighbors who join together and purchase a horse. Of 
these two systems the first is preferable, and is coming into 
practice to a larger extent. The company stallion has 
generally proved unsatisfactory, except in cases in which 
the men have formed their own organization. If the com- 
pany waited for some salesman of a distant stallion dealer 
or importer to organize them into a company and then sell 
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