PRACTICAL PAPERS—THE HORSE. 
295 
THE HORSE—BREEDS, BREEDING AND TRAINING. 
From a Lecture delivered at the Illinois Industrial University, January, 1869, and 
published in the Report of the Board of Trustees, 
BY nON. N. J. COLEMAN, ST. LOUIS. 
Now, in regard to horses, they are certainly very useful 
animals, but, let me enquire, for what do we want horses? 
Farmers want horses to work upon the farm ; they also raise 
them to sell, just as they raise cattle and sheep and hogs to 
sell. These are the purposes for which farmers grow this 
stock, first for their own use, and then to sell in the towns and 
cities. 
I do not propose, gentlemen, to give you a history of the 
horse, going back to the days of Pharaoh, and tracing the 
story of the horse all along down to this date. Nor do I pro¬ 
pose to give you a history of the various breeds of horses. 
I propose to deal with the present, and take the horse as we 
find him. . 
Small horses are adapted to a hilly country, but are not suit¬ 
able for the purposes of the farm, particularly on our rich 
fertile prairies. They cannot haul loads large enough, nor 
turn furrows deep enough. We want, on the farm, horses that 
we can use for all purposes. 
The Percheron, or Norman horse, is a breed that is being 
largely imported into this country. It is a good breed for 
draft purposes. We have a horse in this country—we ha\^e 
them in Missouri, you have them in this state—a horse favor¬ 
ing the build of the Percheron. He can haul immense loads, 
but he is too big boned and to clumsy for other purposes. He 
is not adapted to riding. He is not a good buggy or carriage 
horse. 
