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Vol. LXXII. No. 4186 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 18, 1913 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR 
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THAT FARMERS’ HORSE COMPANY. 
Putting the Stallion at Work. 
[Last year Mr. J. Grant Morse wrote about the Belgian 
stallion which the farmers bought as a stock company. 
Many of us would like to know how this enterprise came 
out.] 
The Belgian stallion that was bought by our stock 
company has been a big bill of expense so far; but 
we trust that he will help at least to make up for 
some of the expense he has incurred in the future. 
Last year he was bred to 13 mares (rather an un¬ 
lucky number, as it proved). There are three living 
note could be avoided if it were proven that the note 
was procured by fraud. He was informed that if 
the note was presented for collection by the drawer, 
lie could not collect if fraud were proven; but that 
if the note had passed into other hands, that it would 
be collectable, no matter how it was procured. It is 
needless to say that a telegraphed inquiry disclosed 
the fact that the note had changed hands. 
When the final round-up of the season came, all 
but one man came up and took his medicine. One 
failed to appear,, and as there was no way of forcing 
him to settle, the others settled for him and took 
extremely doubtful whether he could be made to earn 
his board. I finally consented to take the horse for a 
year for half of the service fees collected, the horse 
to stand only at Laurel Farm, and the fee to be $15, 
payable when foal stands and sucks. I took the horse 
home on these terms. 
I argued that the horse had been raised and fitted 
for sale with the sole idea of making him bring the 
high dollar, and with no thought of his value as a 
breeder. When he came here, he was a mass . of 
fat, and it was said that he weighed over 1,600 pounds 
as a two-year-old. In good hard flesh, he now weighs 
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THE BELGIAN STALLION DOING HIS SHARE OF HONEST LABOR. Fig. 20 
colts so far as I know, and the service fee has been 
paid for one of them. In the first place, it was voted 
that the fee should be $20 to insure a mare with foal, 
but later the board of directors voted that the fee 
should be $20 for a living foal, and the living foals 
number three. There was a clause in the contract 
that the horse must be a 60 per cent foal getter, but 
there is also a “joker” to the effect that the secre¬ 
tary must report every month as to the condition of 
the horse, how many mares were being served, etc. 
Ibis of course the secretary failed to do, and the 
clause was rendered void. When the note was pre¬ 
sented to the local bank for collection, one of the 
members of the company inquired if payment of the 
over his share of stock. The $800 payable on note, 
interest at 6 per cent, $365 for keeping the horse and 
other incidentals, made it cost the shareholders about 
$119 each. When we get the pay for all three colts, 
we shall have $60 or $5.45 each for the 11 of us. This 
state of things showed conclusively that something 
must be done, and we sat down and talked it over 
in a friendly manner. The consensus of opinion was 
that the horse should go into some one’s hands who 
would be interested in his earning something, and it 
was truthfully said that the best way to do that was 
to make the manager of the horse get his pay for 
keeping him out of his earnings. No one seemed 
to be anxious to take, him in this way, for it looked 
a little over 1,500 pounds as a four-year-old. He had 
been broken single, and was a kind, tractable horse 
so long as he was kept away from other horses, but 
otherwise it took two men to do anything with him, 
and this made men shy about bringing their mares, 
for they were afraid that they would be injured. Of 
course this state of affairs would not do, so the first 
thing necessary was to teach him that he must mind. 
This was done with the “war bridle” and without 
the use of a whip. When he learned to behave him¬ 
self, he was fitted out with a double work harness 
with a hame collar, and hitched to the big bobs with 
the white mare. At first we kept the cord on him 
and used a jockey stick between them. He took 
