12 
THE P E R C H E R O N REVIEW 
that is the only way to raise youngsters, the quicker they will 
be able to increase tlie price they get for the stallions they 
produce. One breeder I know purchased fence and posts to 
build grass paddocks last summer and then got cold feet and 
failed to put up fences because he was afraid the horse business 
was going to pieces completely. One colt that he took good 
care of sold for .$2, .500. 00, another colt in an adjoining stall 
could have been sold a number of times at a similar figure. 
This breeder also sold another colt for not far from the $2,000.00 
mark, all because he took care of them. He had at least a 
dozen young stallions running in a bunch of thirty yearlings 
that would have sold readily at $500.00 each and some of them 
more, had they been separated into good grass paddocks with 
no more than two colts together. He did sell several for $600.00 
a head but he could have sold nearly every yearling and most all 
of his older stallions had they been properly handled with dark 
stalls, plenty of feed and water and good grass pastures. This 
is a wonderful chance breeders have to increase the financial 
income from their Percheron breeding. 
KEEP SALE STOCK TO THEMSELVES 
Selling Percherons is like selling any other kind of pure- 
bred livestock. A breeder must keep his horses which are for 
sale isolated from those he wants to keep. Never show a 
prospective buyer a horse you want to keep, if you can help it. 
He is too likely to think that because you will not sell him, he 
surely is the best, and that what you will sell is only the 
second pick. Frequently a buyer will go away and a sale is 
lost merely because he thinks he is not getting the best. If 
one has six stallion colts running together and there is one 
which is not for sale, be sure to hide that colt when a buyer 
comes, because nine times out of ten he will pick on that 
animal, particularly if you intimate that that one is your 
choice. Of course, if this buyer is an experienced judge, he 
will use his own head and not be influenced by what you say. 
If you have six mares you want to sell, put them all together 
away from your other mares. If they happen to be the second 
rate kind you have culled out, you will have a hard time to 
sell them if you let them run with some extra good mares you 
are keeping. Furthermore, most buyers will pay more if they 
see these second rate mares in a lot to themselves away from 
a better grade of animals. If possible, do not show any horses 
to a buyer except those that are for sale, unless it be your 
herd sire or the dams of animals you want to sell. Always be 
sure that you can stand back of everything you have for sale, 
representing it exactly as it is. One had better castrate a 
stallion or sell a mare as a grade than to make a misrepre- 
sentation if he expects to remain in the business and have the 
confidence of the public. Handle only good dependable stock that 
you can recommend strongly to the buyer. Many a breeder has 
been compelled to go out of the horse business in the last few 
years because he handled stock whose breeding was questionable 
and the public knew it. The old time sharp practices of selling 
barren mares, stallions not sure, and counterfeit individuals of 
one sort and another, merely because they had a pedigree, will 
not do any more. Farmers are wise to these money sinking 
schemes, and the only breeders and dealers who can make their 
business pay now are those who give their customers value 
received. 
HAVE SALE STOCK IN GOOD FLESH 
Have the stock you want to sell in good flesh so that it 
will make the best possible appearance before intending buyers. 
It is ordinarily a safe practice to let the man who makes the 
best bid have it because it seldoms pays to carry an animal 
indefinitely after it is in a salable condition. When one gets 
a horse ready to sell, the most money is usually made by seeking 
diligently for a buyer until that animal is turned into cash. 
Some breeders who have not been satisfied with the prices they 
have been offered for their stock during the last few years have 
held over their three and four year old stallions hoping for a 
better price. Usually the average breeder, busy with his farm 
work, makes more money selling his stallions as two year olds 
and it rarely pays to carry them until they are more than 
three year olds. The most clear money is made when one can 
sell weanlings or yearlings except in the case of a particularly 
valuable colt. 
THE PUBLIC AUCTION 
Never hold a public auction to dispose of second-rate stock. 
The advertising gained from such an auction is very detrimental. 
This is especially true where a man has a sire with a reputation 
for producing good stock. The fewer inferior animals a breeder 
carries, the better off he is financially, because it takes less 
help to care for his horses and the feed bill is greatly reduced. 
Then, too, a prospective buyer gets a bad impression of a 
breeder's work if there are a number of second-class animals 
about the place. It furthermore lessens his appreciation of 
your good stock. Culls are no good anywhere, and the quicker 
a breeder gets rid of them, regardless of the method, the better 
off he is. Of course, if a breeder has a high-class lot of horses, 
a good, clean auction sale is a big advertisement and a mighty 
good way of selling Percherons. 
ADVERTISING IN BREED LITERATURE 
Always avail yourself of the opportunity to advertise in any 
literature gotten out by the county or state Percheron Breeders' 
Association even though you may not have something to sell at 
that particular time. It is also money well spent to carry an 
ad in the PERCHERON REVIEW because such ads are "read 
by the people who are most interested in Percherons. In fact, 
an ad in any breed publication, whether you have much for sale 
or not, is justifiable because it keeps your name before the 
public. 
VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS 
Never fail to get good photographs of your Percherons when- 
ever possible. Good pictures are the best known means of 
advertising high-class animals. Be sure that your newspaper 
friends, the county agent, the secretary of the state Percheron 
Breeders' Association and the secretary of the Percheron Society 
of America all have photographs of your horses because they 
frequently have the chance to use such pictures in the press or 
in lantern slides for illustrated lectures. An ad occasionally 
is a great inducement to a newspaper to run photographs of 
your horses and to give you a write-up that will be a good 
advertisement. 
BREEDER'S SHOW WINDOW 
Keep a good show window. If you have no small pasture 
near the road, provide one where you can keep a few of your 
best Percherons. Have a sign painted on your barn giving your 
name and address and the fact that you are a breeder of 
Percherons and Shorthorn cattle, Angus cattle or Hereford cattle 
or Duroc Jersey hogs or whatever breeds you have. Another 
good way is to have an attractive sign up on the gate at the 
road, or better still, have a larger signboard up in this Percheron 
pasture near the road indicating the line of breeding you are 
pursuing. In these days of automobiles several thousand people, 
many of them from other states, pass your farm every year if 
you live on a main traveled road. This is a very cheap but 
effective kind of advertising. 
CORRESPONDENCE 
Be prompt in your correspondence with people regarding 
your Percherons. The money you pay out for advertising can 
easily be wasted, if you do not answer all letters of inquiry 
courteously and promptly. A lot of time and effort can be 
saved in writing letters if a breeder can have a small folder 
printed telling about the breeding of his Percherons. how he 
raises them and how large a farm he has, together with such 
other information as would be of interest about any other kind 
of pure-bred livestock which he raises. Enclose a folder of this 
sort in every letter you send out. Where a breeder thinks he 
can afford it, a typewriter is a great help in getting out letters 
to prospective customers. There is scarcely a family where 
there is not someone who can learn to run a typewriter very 
conveniently. A neatly type-written letter goes a long way 
toward encouraging correspondence from prospective customers 
and that is what you want if you have Percherons to sell. 
STATIONERY 
Every Percheron breeder should have appropriate stationery. 
It need not be fancy, but it should tell something about your 
Percherons. A picture of the home buildings, if they are in 
good repair, makes a good illustration for your letter head, or 
better still, a pasture scene showing your mares and foals or a 
good photograph of some of your Percherons in show condition. 
ADVERTISING FROM NEWS STORIES 
A great deal of inexpensive Percheron advertising can be 
gotten by keeping the Secretary of the Perclieron Society and 
the Secretary of your state and county Percheron Breeders' 
Association and your county agent advised of any good sales 
you have made. Such news makes splendid information around 
which to build sliort stories suitable for the agricultural papers. 
CONCLUSION 
It is one thing to want to follow the breeder's calling, and 
it is another thing to be able to take these well-bred animals 
combining beauty and grace and practical utility, the visible 
results of the devotion of generations of tlioughful men and to 
create from their comely forms a new equine product like the 
public demands and for which they are now willing to pay 
almost any price. It is one thing to know how to produce "■ood 
Percherons and it is another thing equally essential to know 
how to sell them. 
