io8 



THE HORSE, ASS, AND MULE 



looo-pound mark. At twenty-four months a stallion should weigh 

 around 1500, and a mare slightly less. In feeding experiments 

 conducted by Professor J. L. Edmonds on ten pure-bred Percheron 

 fillies at the Illinois Station, foaled in 1914 and fed two winters and 

 one summer, the average weight at twelve months of age was 1 1 1 2 

 pounds, and at twenty-four months 1 548 pounds. The "growthiest" 

 filly of the lot weighed 1260 pounds at twelve months and 1775 



pounds at twenty-four 

 months. 



Crossbred or grade 

 Percherons are very 

 common in America. 

 The pure-bred stallions 

 mated to the larger 

 type of grade mares, 

 of draf ty conformation, 

 furnish a large per cent 

 of our best draft teams. 

 On the Western range, 

 notably in Wyoming, 

 Montana, Utah, Colo- 

 rado, and the Dakotas, 

 by the use of Percheron 

 stallions for two or 

 three generations the 

 horse stock has been 

 greatly increased in 

 size and usefulness, many of the grades weighing from 1400 to 

 1500 pounds at maturity. Through the Middle Western states 

 are to be seen many high-grade mares which in breed character 

 and conformation are apparently pure-breds. 



Prepotent Percheron stallions mated to mares of other draft 

 breeds also usually give satisfactory results, and this is a favorite 

 combination in some localities where legs with feather hairs are 

 found on mares of Clyde or Shire ancestry. The resulting off- 

 spring are usually smooth-legged and more easily satisfy the com- 

 mon market demands. The most prominent buyers in the Chicago 

 horse market have testified in the highest terms to the demand 



Fig. 38. La Belle 34982, an aged Percheron mare, 

 champion American-bred mare in 191 1 at the Inter- 

 national Live-Stock Exposition. A famous dam. 

 Owner, E. B. White, Leesburg, Virginia. From 

 photograph by the author 



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