VOL. XLVII. NO. 1994 NEW YORK APRIL 14, 1888 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year, 1888, by the Rural New-Yoeker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
82.00 PER YEAR. 
jtyovuman, 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
FRENCH COACH STALLION, GENERAL. 
Apart from fast trotters and runners, 
which are not produced with certainty even 
by the most experienced breeders with the best 
of breeding stock to work upon and the best 
of trainers to develop them, the most profit¬ 
able horse which a farmer can breed is the 
large, stylish, high-stepping carriage or coup6 
horse. Such horses can be produced by coup¬ 
ling large, stout mares with good-sized, highly- 
bred, stylish stallions, either of a good trotting 
strain, a thoroughbred, or a good specimen of 
the Cleveland Bay or French coach horse 
strain. A fine specimen of this excellent strain 
is shown at Fig. 92. His name is General, and 
he is the property of Messrs. SaVage & Far- 
num, Detroit, Michigan. He is a bay, 15 3 
hands; weight, 1,290 pounds; foaled April 6, 
1884; imported in 1887, bred by M. Auguste 
Rid#}, of St. Pair, Department of Calvados, 
France. Got by the stallion Oriental, dam 
Capuchine, by Ire- 
landais, and only 
daughter of Tacon- 
net. 
•—— 
HORSE BREED¬ 
ING IN CEN¬ 
TRAL ILLINOIS. 
undergoes the most thorough inspection, and 
all animals that prove unsound, or refuse to 
work, ape returned to the city dealer. 
Feeders are draft horses wanting in flesh, 
weighing from 1,300 pounds upward, and hav¬ 
ing frame and bone sufficient to carry 300 
pounds more weight. They are bought by 
those who make it a business to feed and fat¬ 
ten horses—mostly by firms in Ohio or Penn¬ 
sylvania, who pay from §150 to §200 each for 
them, shipping them home and feeding them 
from two to four months; then sending them 
to market and making more money on one 
car than an ordinary dealer would by han¬ 
dling six or eight cars of horses. If there is 
any place where horses ought to be fed and 
fattened for market, it is here in Illinois, 
where all necessary feed is much cheaper than 
in Ohio or Pennsylvania. Here are a few il¬ 
lustrations of the facts in this connection, that 
came under my notice. 
Passing along the street I am halted by a 
neighboring farmer, who says: 
“Say, broker, how is the horse market? I 
have a good horse I am feeding up to sell, and 
as soon as I get him fat, I will sell him to you.” 
“Very well,” I say, “give him plenty and 
when you get ready to sell, I will try and buy 
him.” 
Two or three weeks later in comes the far¬ 
mer with his fat horse to sell. I say: 
“Mr. Farmer, this horse is hardly fat 
enough. Can’t you take him home and feed 
him well a few weeks longer?” 
“No, no; he is fat. I have driven in rather 
fast and he hasn’t had any water, and he looks 
a little gaunt now; but you put him in your 
barn and let him get filled up, and he will 
look quite different; then feed is high, and 1 
don’t want to keep him any longer, and I 
want to use the money. What is he worth to 
you to-day?” 
“Well, I can give you §175 now; but would 
rather you would keep and feed him a month 
or so—I could give you §20 or $25 more for 
him then.” 
“Well, I guess I’ll let you have him; I havn’t 
any use for him aLd feed is kinder high.” 
So I get the fat horse and in a few days 
there comes a farmer from Ohio looking for 
feeders and says: 
“Broker, got any feeders?” 
“Yes,” and I lead out the fat horse bought 
of the Illinois farmer, and he says: 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
Horses in the mar¬ 
ket are classified as 
streeters, express, 
draft, drivers, carri¬ 
age and coach, none 
being considered 
marketable unless 
strictly sound. 
Streeters are so 
called because they 
are mostly used by 
street railway com¬ 
panies. A streeter 
must weigh not less 
than from 1,050 to 
1,200 pounds. There 
is no restriction as to 
color, but it is neces¬ 
sary that he should 
possess good bone 
and feet, and his gen¬ 
eral appearance must 
be that of a durable 
animal. Street car 
companies in need of 
such stock, will place 
their order with their 
favored city dealer 
for the number want¬ 
ed, and no one else 
can supply them, 
even at less money. 
Hence if I ship such 
stock to market, lam 
compelled to pay the 
city dealer a com¬ 
mission of §5 per 
head, to place my 
stock to fill the com¬ 
pany’s order. The 
average price paid 
by the companies for 
streeters is §125 per 
head, so in order to 
make a small profit 
over expenses, street¬ 
ers must be bought in 
the country at §110 
per head. This stock 
French Coach 
Horse, General. 
Fig-. 
yi, Z/7AL 
92. 
“That’s a good feeder, he has been fed just 
long enough to make his hair lie; now if he 
only had about 300 pounds more flesh he would 
be a good horse.” I ask him §10 profit and he 
buys him, ships him to Ohio, where corn is 
worth 10 or 15 cents more per bushel, and hay 
§3 to §0 more per ton than here, and feeds 
him three months, all he can coax him to eat, 
and sells him for $300, making a clear §100 
for trouble and feed. 
In November last there was shipped from 
my stable one car of feeders—10 head—that 
cost an average of §187 50 here. They were 
shipped to Ohio and fed until February last 
and were sold to a New York buyer, for §325 
per head. Estimated cost of feed for 112 days 
at 30 cents per day per head, makes §33.60 
and allowing §12 per head for expense of 
buying and shipping—which is ample—the 
total expense would be §45.60 per head, which 
added to original cost §187.50, makes a total 
cost of §233.10 each to the feeder, leaving a net 
profit of §82.90 per head, or §1,326.40 on the 
one car of feeders—good wages for three and 
one-half months’ time. 
If you would try this experiment of feeding 
in winter, prepare a good, warm stable as the 
horse will not take on flesh unless kept warm. 
Then select a good, 
sound gelding weigh¬ 
ing not less than 1,350 
pounds’and not more 
than six years old, of 
good color, plenty of 
bone, good frame and 
blocky build, with a 
short back, well 
coupled, witn ribs 
well sprung out. 
Never try feeding a 
flat-ribbed, long- 
backed or poorly- 
coupled horse, and 
don’t take one with 
any blemish, no mat¬ 
ter how small, and 
scrupulously avoid a 
dim or weak eye, as 
strong feeding is 
very destructive to 
poor eyes. You can 
easily estimate the 
cost of feeding three 
quarts of oats, two 
quarts of shelled 
corn, one or two 
quarts of dry bran at 
each feed three times 
a day at regular in¬ 
tervals, to which a 
handful of oil meal 
once a day should be 
added. This, with a 
small allowance of 
hay, will increase the 
horse’s weight—if an 
ordinary feeder—100 
pounds in 30 days. 
Continue the feeding 
for 90 days, and you 
have a 1,650-pound 
fat horse, which will 
bring §250 more read¬ 
ily than the same 
animal thin in flesh 
would bring §175. 
Here the feed has 
cost you §25 and 
brought §75, a net 
profit of §50. 
As evidence that 
my estimates of cost 
are not far from cor¬ 
rect, I know of farm¬ 
ers in Ohio, who feed 
and fatten horses for 
dealers for 30 cents 
r ^V-JO^AI/L 
