THE PERCHERON REVIEW 
19 
nothing will help a young man to get out of debt 
sooner than a few good brood mares. It costs no 
more to feed a blooded animal than a grade, and 
the better mares, while doing all the farm work, 
will at the same time bring in a good income. 
"If you are able to buy two purebred mares 
instead of one, do so. It frequently happens that 
one is a regular breeder and the other is not so good," 
says Henry Worner of Tazewell County. "The work 
of handling and taking care of two like animals is not 
much greater than for one. Besides they will keep 
one another company in the pasture with their foals. 
"We believe in working the purebred mares and 
having them help do our spring work. Then we 
turn them out on pasture with their foals. For the 
heavier work, however, such as hauling grain to 
market eight or nine miles, making two trips a day, 
cutting 20 acres of grain a day with four animals, 
I think a farmer should have a team or two of good, 
big, strong mules or geldings. No brood mare, 
whether mongrel, grade or purebred, can give a good 
account of herself under such a severe strain and 
hardship. 
"Give the purebred mare plenty of exercise, 
pure water, good feed, clean oats, a little corn, sweet 
hay, no moldy, musty feed of any kind. In the 
winter we allow our mares some oats straw and at 
times the run of the stalk field. We like to have 
them foal in May or the first half of June, which 
gives one the use of the animals through most of the 
spring work. 
"We use all possible precaution in disinfecting 
and having the stall clean before and after foaling. 
Spare no effort in this work. Better still, if the 
weather is warm and pleasant enough, let the mare 
foal out on the grass in the pasture. This is very 
necessary in order to guard against navel infection 
from which more colts die every year than from 
anything else or all other ailments combined." 
Nat Maurer of Tazewell County has a very 
decided opinion about the profits of buying purebred 
animals. "As a beginner, I did not have the ready 
cash on hand to buy all purebred mares," he said. 
"I decided that by buying a part of them purebred 
I could soon get a start and then sell the grade 
mares, buying more purebreds. By so doing I 
would have the opportunity to find out which class 
of mares would produce the best results and which 
would bring the most interest on the capital in- 
vested. The purebred mares have proved them- 
selves a success far beyond the production of the 
grades, and beyond my expectations when I started. 
I would very earnestly advise the farmer who is just 
starting to purchase as many purebred mares as 
he can possibly handle. In the light of my experi- 
ence the best are the cheapest. 
"For example, I purchased a purebred mare that 
was not in foal, at a public sale. I paid .|500 for her. 
I bred this mare to a prize-winning imported 
Percheron stallion, and the result was that I received 
a fine filly foal. I bred the mare back to the same 
stallion and got another filly. The second one I 
sold for $450 at eight months, and the other I sold 
for S500 even. The mare was bred back to a good 
Percheron horse again and is now safe in foal. 
My other mares are nearly all producing similar 
returns. 
"I work all of my mares in the field. My farming 
is all done with brood mares. I do not keep any 
geldings at all, because there is too great a demand 
for geldings and I can't afford to keep them. I work 
the mares up to the day of foaling, but use great care 
that they are not mistreated in any way. My hired 
help is very kind to them around the barn and in the 
field, and the mares are not jerked around on any 
coarse work. After foaling I let them rest for about 
two weeks and then put them at light work again." 
By courtesy Orange Jiidd Farmer. 
Yearling Percheron Fillies in Illinois Experiment 
