10 
THE P E R C H E R O N REVIEW 
Percheron Mares on a Good Kind of Hay Rack 
The average man goes on trying to make the best of it, and 
as a result never gets anywhere as a constructive breeder. 
With the right kind of mares he would probably make a 
splendid success in the business. Occasionally we see a 
breeder do pretty well by breeding an ordinary sort of mare 
to a high class sire. That is to be encouraged only if money 
is the limiting factor. Success comes more quickly if enough 
money can be spared to get the best kind of mares. 
The show mare is not always to be selected as a brood 
mare. She may have won prizes at some show and still not 
be nearly as good an individual as some mare that never saw 
a tanbark, but is demonstrating her merit in the harness 
and by raising colts. Show ring awards ought to set a 
standard, but unfortunately they do not always. A filly may 
be out of a show mare, and still not be a prize winning 
prospect herself. The only safe rule to follow in buying 
aged mares is to select those which produce regularly colts of 
desirable stamp. If the purchase is a filly, she should be a 
good individual and out of a dam of merit. If the filly is 
out of a well known sire of high class stuff, then all the better. 
Perhaps I insist more on ancestry than most breeders do, but 
I have seen so many men fail because of carelessness in this 
respect, and I know positively from my own experience of 
over twenty years that blood will tell every time. 
Percheron people emphasize blood lines, but the majority 
fail to apprehend the true meaning of breeding. The French 
breed is criticized severely — and rightly so — by adherents to 
other draft breeds, for not being able to produce similarity 
in the animals. The trouble is not with the breed, but with 
the ideas people have of what constitutes good breeding. The 
greatest Percheron sires in this country are all well bred and 
they are leaving a uniform lot of colts. Uniformity, of 
course, is the thing for which we are all looking. It is the 
plainly bred stallion almost invariably that throws one colt 
of one kind and another of an entirely different stamp. The 
stallion that fails to sire an even lot of good colts ought to 
be castrated, for every such horse is a detriment to the breed 
and to his owner if left entire. I have yet to find a high 
class Percheron sire that does not carry the best of breeding 
close up in his pedigree. Some men are satisfied if they have 
a pedigree that traces to Brilliant III, Besigue, Villers, Fen- 
elon or Voltaire in the fourth or fifth generation. These 
are too remote to do much good at the present time, unless 
the succeeding sires have left or are leaving their impress on 
their offspring. These old noted sires undoubtedly had great 
influence on the horse stock of their time, but breeders today 
want to use the stallions that are siring the best stock right 
now. If breeders will select mares and a sire having such 
horses in the first and second generations, they need not worry 
over producing offspring with uniformity in type. 
By courtesy Dakota Farmer. 
T. B. BOWMAN. 
Tractors vs. Horses on the Farm 
Governor James AI. Cox, of Ohio, according to the 
Ohio State Journal for January 30, 1918, has directed the 
State Industrial Commission to place one million dollars of 
State funds with Ohio country banks to be loaned to farm- 
ers who wish to buy tractors. He doubtless has done this in 
the belief that crop production would be greatly stimulated if 
more Ohio farmers owned tractors. His intentions are good, 
but good intentions are not always based on a sound foun- 
dation. In the judgment of experienced farmers, much 
greater headway would be made toward immediately increas- 
ing crop production if the Governor would direct the banks 
to loan such State funds to farmers who wish to buy good 
grade draft mares. He has as much right to do the one as the 
other. His action has caused wonder and amazement among 
thousands of the best farmers in Ohio. The least that can 
be said is that he has misjudged the farmer's needs. 
Farmers and horsemen have heretofore paid but little 
attention to the frantic claims of tractor manufacturers. 
Their attitude toward the men who bought them, ex- 
pecting to do away with horses, was one of amused toler- 
ance. If anything was said it was usually a jesting refer- 
ence to Barnum's classic comment — "There is a sucker born 
every minute." There is danger that our crop production 
for 1918 may be materially decreased, rather than increased, 
by a tractor selling campaign. Tractor advocates revel in 
figures. They can compute, to the fraction of a cent, how 
much can be saved hy substituting tractors for horses on 
farms. The writer has proved both sides of the arguments 
with statistics. It is easy — with figures based on theory, or 
on one or tw o years' experience — to prove tractors are more 
efficient than horses. It is likewise an easy task to take spe- 
cific instances and prove, by statistics, that the balance sheet 
is in favor of horses. Nothing of consequence is to be gained 
from such studies. A true estimate of the value of tractors on 
the farm can only be arrived at by considering farm power 
in a broad way. 
Farm power must, first of all, be reliable. Work must 
be done when ground and weather conditions are favorable. 
Horses can be depended on. If one gets sick or injured, 
another can be substituted in a few minutes. In emer- 
gencies the remaining horses can do the work in spite of 
the loss of one of their mates, for horses have a reserve of 
power and can, when required, exert practically" fi\e times 
the pull that is required of them in regular work. 
Tractors are not reliable. They may break down at 
any time. Experience has shown that breakage is apt to 
Percheron Mares Ready for the Corn Planter 
