3911. 
A PERCHERON MARE AS AN INVEST¬ 
MENT, 
IT. IF., Broome Co., A 7 . Y.—I own a 
seven-acre farm and cannot get cultivating 
or other work done just when I need it. I 
am going to have a horse. If I get a 
Percheron mare I can raise a colt and do 
my own work at the same time, besides I 
can get a good price for Percheron colts. 
What must I pay for a good mare (Perch¬ 
eron)? What weight would you recom¬ 
mend? I wish to raise good draft colts. 
Are Percheron mares gentle? What do you 
think I can get for a good Percheron colt 
when I get one? What age should mare 
be? Tell mo all you can about Percherons. 
I see no reason why the owner of a 
seven-acre farm should not keep just as 
good stock as the owner of 700-acre 
farm. The scheme which W. W. sug¬ 
gests in my opinion is feasible and ad¬ 
visable. A good Percheron mare will 
do all of his work and raise a colt at 
the same time, and the colt should be 
worth more at the time of weaning than 
the cost of the keeping of the mare dur¬ 
ing the year. The mare should be so 
bred that the colt would be foaled in 
October or November, so that the mare 
and colt might have more leisure in the 
Winter than would be possible in the 
Summer. Good and succulent food 
should be furnished the mare during the 
Winter, such as silage, carrots or roots 
of some kind, so as to produce milk 
and, of course, she should be well-fed 
and both should be kept in a stable 
warm, clean and dry. In the Spring 
time the colt would be ready to wean 
and turn out to grass and the mare 
could be put to work. The Percheron 
mare for breeding should be, of course, 
of good conformation, good disposition 
and weigh not less than 1500 pounds, 
and should be bred to a registered stal¬ 
lion of the same good qualities and 
preferably heavier in weight, say from 
1700 to 2000 pounds. A good colt from 
such a pair at weaning time would be 
worth from $200 to $300 and might be 
worth considerably more. Such a mare 
as I have described would cost in the 
market from $400 to $600, and she should 
not be less than three years of age. It 
is quite impossible to keep up with the 
demand for purebred Percheron colts 
and horses, and it seems to be increas¬ 
ing every day. While the price of the 
niare would seem to be high as compared 
with non-registered horses, yet it will 
be found that the sale of the colts would 
pay for the purchase price of the mare 
in at least two years, and the mare 
could go on breeding for very many years. 
As a general rule, Percheron mares and 
horses are gentle, true and easily worked. 
There would be very little likelihood of 
securing a vicious Percheron mare, al¬ 
though care should be exercised in the 
purchase of the breeding animal in that 
case as well as all others. 
JOHN mTennan. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
I find that in this section W. W. 
would have to pay from $200 to $250 for 
a well-bred mare not registered. Six 
years would be about the best age, and 
the weight for the purpose he states 
about 1400 pounds. The mare could 
certainly do his cultivating and raise 
a good colt; in fact, she would be better 
off for the work. I believe a Percheron 
mare to be the gentlest of any breed. 
Certainly I never heard of any that 
were otherwise than gentle. In this sec¬ 
tion a good Percheron colt would com¬ 
mand from $75 to $100 at six months of 
age. From what information I can get 
it seems to me that W. W.’s colt would 
pay for its keep and the keep of the 
mare. The work he would get dine for 
nothing. For anyone situated as he is 
I should think it would be a good propo¬ 
sition. I should try it and feel very , 
hopeful of even making some money on 
it in the course of three or four years, 
aside from getting my work done and 
keeping my mare. j. s. pratt. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
There is a pretty strong feeling in this 
community that heavier horses, as Perch¬ 
erons for example, are needed for farm 
work Very few have yet been tried, 
but there is every indication that their 
market is fairly assured, both for work 
in the country and in the cities. It is 
constantly asserted that a man may suc¬ 
cessfully raise and market in the smaller 
cities, if not elsewhere, horses of 1200 
to 1400 pounds. Where a man is'not 
too busy with his team, or in the case ! 
mentioned of a single mare, I see no 
reason why with the blood he names he 
may not be successful in raising colts 
tor market. Prices are ruling pretty ‘ 
THK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
high, and there ought to be some profit. 
I have had no experience in just this 
line, but have raised some colts. It is 
not all profit. Several farmers that I 
know raise colts now and then. I be¬ 
lieve they are usually successful, but very 
likely they would be more so if they 
used better blood. There is a good deal 
of care attending the raising of a colt, 
and. not a little expense. I wouldn’t 
advise a man to get into the job ex¬ 
pecting a fortune out of it, but it seems 
to me that I would approve the plan 
proposed by W. W. For farm purposes 
a horse weighing 1200 or 1300 seems 
generally to be preferred, although 1400 
is sometimes desired. For city uses and 
for country teaming the market seems 
to incline towards a slightly heavier 
horse. As for prices, I saw a span not 
long ago that had been purchased at 
$800. That is the highest priced farm 
team that I have seen. I think $300 
apiece does not seem far out of the way 
for good horses, five to seven years old, 
and withou; material drawbacks of any 
sort. A span of colts, one a yearling 
and the other a two-year-old, was of¬ 
fered a few days ago for $300 for The 
two. These were not purebred, how¬ 
ever. They would weigh now about 
2000 pounds, but when mature are likely 
to weigh about 1400 pounds each. I 
should expect these in four years to 
sell at $500 to $600 for the two, or pos¬ 
sibly a little more, in this locality. 
There seems to be one peculiarity about 
the horse market. If a man wishes to 
buy he find it a hard job to buy what 
he wants and get his money’s worth. 
If he wants to sell he finds it equally 
difficult to find buyers who are willing 
to pay the value of his horse. This is 
not said to discourage W. W., but it 
seems to be one of the incidents that 
are worth considering. ii. h. i.yon. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
116 
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