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251 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
good, and where the water is plenty and whole¬ 
some. They should not, however, be left out 
at night until settled warm weather, nor should 
they be allowed to depend entirely on the grass 
after it has been much frozen in the fall. The 
fresh air and water, and the nutritious grass, 
coupled with the free life of the field, will sup¬ 
ply all the conditions for the best growth and 
development during the early summers of the 
animal’s iife. 
In the winter time, it is absolutely necessary 
to satisfactory' development that the best hay 
and good water be supplied, and that sufficient 
opportunity for exercise be given. Extra food 
and extra care will pay, in the long run. 
Now, bearing in mind the foregoing state¬ 
ments and the principles laid down in the 
previous papers of this series, let us see how the 
average farmer manages his horse breeding af¬ 
fairs. He buys (if he does not already own) a 
half-broken-down mare, with, perhaps, foun¬ 
dered feet, spavined hocks, and “ touched ” 
wind ; and then he blunders about the country 
to find a cheap stallion. If there is a fine 
blooded horse standing at $50, and a “ lunk¬ 
head” at $5, he always begins by saving $45, 
and congratulating himself on his shrewdness. 
After the mare is stinted he puts her at work 
in the team and makes her “earn her living” 
by working hard, ten hours a day, and picking 
up most of her-feed at night from a poor pas¬ 
ture. In winter she generally has hay given 
her in the most wasteful way, and is kept in a 
dark and unventilated stable, unless the owner 
believes in “hardening.” In this case she may 
spend most of the time,—wet or dry, warm 
or cold,—in an exposed yard with a sheep rack 
or a stack to feed from. If there is a more ac¬ 
tive horse on the place it is used, because 
pleasanter to drive, for the daily trip to the 
store or to town; and the old mare mopes away 
her time in idleness. In the spring she is, for¬ 
tunately, set at work,—fortunately, because hard 
work is better than no exercise,—and is kept at 
it, without extra feed, until she foals. Then, 
after a few days, she is geared up again; and on 
her long jaunts to town, as well as about her 
farm work, the youngster travels about with 
her and takes her milk when he wants it, with¬ 
out much reference to the condition of the mare, 
whether she is overheated or not. The colt is 
as nearly a wild animal as the offspring of do¬ 
mesticated parents can be until he is haltered for 
his weaning in the fall. After this operation is 
completed he takes his chances with the calves 
and yearling stock in the barn-yard in winter, 
and in the pasture in summer. If he is stabled 
in winter, he is usually deprived of necessary 
exercise; and he comes to a late maturity a poor 
stick of a horse, with constitutional defects that 
condemn him to a low sphere of usefulness, and 
that probably occasion his sale to a horse rail¬ 
road company at six years of age, when he lias 
cost $200, and is sold for $150. If he happen 
by any accident to be good looking, and to have 
a promising trotting gait, his owner—blind to 
his imperfections,—raises him for a stallion ; and 
he may, during the rest of his life, transmit his 
ancestral spavins, and founders, and broken 
wind, to a new race of miserable brutes, at from 
$3 to' $5 ahead. 
This is a simple and unexaggerated account 
of the way in which America is supplied with 
its horses. This no-system is as bad as bad can 
be, and it amply accounts for the fact that (ex¬ 
cept in very rare cases) really good horses are 
not to be had at any price, and that pretty good 
ones sell for almost fabulous prices. As a rule, 
every horse that is raised according to the above 
description, costs the breeder more than he 
sells for, and he is worth to the purchaser less 
than his price. It is a losing business from be¬ 
ginning to end, and is a disgrace to all who are 
connected with it. The fault rests with the 
farmers, who fail to see that the only safe rule 
in horse-raising, as in everything else connected 
with their business, is to do the very lest that is 
within their 'power. 
A really good horse—one that is sound in all 
respects, that looks well, travels well, and works 
well—is worth more than he costs, from the day 
he is foaled until his days of usefulness are 
over. A thoroughly wretched horse is not 
worth when foaled the pittance paid for stallion 
fee ; is not worth when broken, the fodder he has 
eaten; and is not worth when sold, the half-price 
that he fetches. 
Every man who undertakes to raise a colt 
should set out with the determination that it 
shall be worth when four years old, at least 
twice the average price of the horses of his 
neighborhood ; and he should at every step,— 
from conception to training,—allow nothing to 
be omitted that can add to the animal’s value. 
Of course this way costs more,—a good deal 
more,—than the hap-liazard way of doing the 
thing; but every cent that is judiciously spent in 
adding to the intrinsic value of a colt, is well in¬ 
vested, and will come back with interest when 
he is sold; while every cent that is scrimped out 
of the poor brute’s ancestry, food, and attend¬ 
ance, is finally lost in his depreciated value, 
whether for sale or for use. 
That the foregoing opinions may not be con¬ 
sidered to be without foundation, the following 
calculation of the cost of raising colts on the 
two different systems is given. It is assumed 
that animals may be pastured during six months 
of the year, and must be housed and fed during 
the remaining six; also that in either case, a 
poor mare will earn, while she is bearing and 
suckling her foal, the actual cost of her poor 
keep; and that a good mare will, during the Same 
time, pay for her more nutritious food and bet¬ 
ter attendance. It i3 further assumed (and the 
facts will ahvays sustain the assumption) that 
the better bred and better fed animal will be as 
fully developed at the age of four years, as the 
poorer one at five. 
Cost of breeding and rearing a common horse 
to the age of five years : Service of stallion, $5; 
keep on hay first winter, $15; pasture first sum¬ 
mer, $10; second winter, $18; second summer, 
$15; third winter, $24; third summer, $20; 
fourth winter, $30; fourth summer, $20; fifth 
winter, $33 ; risk, $10. Total, $200. 
Cost of raising a half-thorough-bred horse on 
good keep, to the age of four years: Service of 
stallion, $50; keep, first winter (2 qts. oats daily), 
$24; pasture, first summer, $15; second winter 
(2 1 ] 2 qts. oats), $30; second summer, $18; third 
winter (3 qts. oats), $36; third summer, $24; 
fourth winter (4 qts. oats), $48 ; risk, $20. To¬ 
tal, $265. 
It is much more likely that the better animal 
will be worth $400 Ilian that the poorer one 
will be worth $150. At these prices there would 
be a loss of $50 in the one case, and a profit of 
$135 in the other. In the case of the cheaper 
animal there is hardly a ghost of a chance of 
fancy value. It is essentially, by birth and edu¬ 
cation, a common dung-hill brute, and can only 
be sold for the commonest uses. 
The half-thorough-bred, if the sire and dam 
have been well selected, is almost certain to be 
very valuable, and the chances are very great 
------. =— 1 -L- 
that either its beauty or its speed will give it 
a high fancy value, which it has no defects to 
lessen. If any breeder finds fault with my esti¬ 
mates, he may make others to suit himself; but 
I challenge him to make any showing, based on 
the actual cost of production and on reasonable 
probabilities of value, that will not show a loss 
with bad breeding, and a profit with good breed¬ 
ing. If the conditions are changed and the 
common colt is fed as well as liis more aristo¬ 
cratic competitor, of course the difference be¬ 
tween them will be lessened; but turn and twist 
the circumstances as we may, the advantage 
will always lie with good breeding and good 
feeding combined. 
--- . -- 
Ogdea Farm Papers—No. 7. 
I have seen this year an advantage in plant¬ 
ing corn in drills. The corn land had been just 
got ready for planting among most of my neigh¬ 
bors and had been marked out both ways (some 
of it partly planted), when there came a very 
heavy and long-continued rain, which made it 
necessary to postpone work for several days for 
the land to dry. To plant a field in this condi¬ 
tion would give the weed seeds too much ad¬ 
vantage over the corn, so it had to be harrowed 
and marked out again. Fortunately the weather 
was good this time, but another lieqwy storm 
might have postponed planting for another 
week and caused still additional work. As I 
planted in drills and had no cross-markings to 
make, it was not necessary to wait for the 
whole field to be prepared before marking out. 
As soon as we had one or two lands plowed, 
they were harrowed'at once and were immedi¬ 
ately planted with a horse corn planter, which 
seems to have done its work perfectly well. 
Where corn has to be planted by hand, the ex¬ 
tra labor of the drill system is a serious objec¬ 
tion ; but when the seed can be put in as fast as 
a horse can walk along the row, it is even 
cheaper than hill-planting by hand. 
I am not yet certain whother I shall be able 
to avoid the expensive hand-hoeing that last 
season’s drill crop required. When the cultiva¬ 
tor can be run but one way, the cleaning of the 
rows by hand makes a serious addition to the 
cost. I have tried, this spring, the new smooth¬ 
ing harrow, which has 120 small steel teeth 
sloping backward at a considerable angle. For 
breaking up small clods and for putting in grass 
seed, it is better than a brush; and from what I 
have seen of its operation among weeds two or 
three inches high, I am inclined to credit its 
inventor’s statement, that it can be run over 
corn, after the leaf has spread, and be run re¬ 
peatedly until the corn is a foot high, without 
injhring it. Acting on my faith, I shall com¬ 
mence using it as soon as the weeds begin to 
show themselves, and shall go broadcast over 
the field once a week until it is obviously doing 
harm to the corn; going once lengthwise and 
the next time across the rows. As it takes a 
width of 9 feet, I can scratch over the 9 1 ] 2 -acre 
field in half a day. This will, certainly, very 
much reduce the amount of hand-labor, and I 
hope that it will obviate its necessity entirely, so 
long as the harrow can be used. After this, we 
shall go through once with the cultivator and 
shall probably have to give one hand-hoeing. 
As the process is an untried one, I have planted 
about twice as much seed as will be needed, and 
at the hand-hoeing the superabundant plants 
will be cut out. I thought it safest to have 
plants enough to allow for injury by the harrow, 
as a little extra seed will be of trifling cost qsm- 
