The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1883-07-21
Horse Breeding Upon Farms.

IL Is easy TO make mistakes. Indeed,
it is so easy that very often the rare oc-
casions upon which mems judgments
in common affairs turn out to be cor
rect stand so singularly prominent in
our memories as to become epochs in
our lives. One of the most conspicuous
mistakes made, not only by ordinary
practical persons, but by others who are
used to practice well-considered fore
sight upon business and economical
affairs, is in regard to the excessive de-
mand for horses. notwithstanding the
vast increase in the use of steam en-
gines, railroads, canal-boats and other
methods of inland transportation. And
in regard to this people do not live and
learn. Forty years ago, when railroads
were only projected, and the great high
ways over which hundreds of millions
of tons of freight are now carried every
year existed only upon paper in the
form of preliminary maps, it was OBJ
jected against them that they would
destroy the horses and render them use
less, thus depriving the farmers of q
very profitable part of their business.
But what mistake was made! In 1910
there were about 3, 0O0, 900 horses in the
United States. In 1850 there were A.
1856, 719; in 1860, 6,249, in 1870, in
spite of the enormous losses of the war,
7,145,370; in 1880, 0,S57, 488; and it is
estimated that the number now in exist
ence is nearly $1,000, 900. And yet we
have over 10000 miles of railroads,
costing about 81, 0O0, ! 00, 900, over which
freight is passed from town to town and
from place to place over our vast terri
tory. 1t is interesting to note the in-
crease in the number of horses during
the last ten years, because that is the
period during which the building of
railroads has been most actively carried
on and the volume of business done on
them has expanded so enormously. This
fact may be accepted as proof that the
demand for horses to facilitate their
business, and that as mechanical facili-
ties for business and transportation in
crease the necessity for working horses
increases correspondingly
But there is another fact which bears
upon this question, and this is that in
crease of business, such as has been
developed SO prodigiously during the
past twenty years, has been accom-
panied by vast production of wealth
and its distribution among all classes of
society. With this wealth have come
habits of luxury, and one of the most
marked exhibitions of luxurious living
is the use of fine horses for road and
driving purposes. Thus we have seen
q demand for horses of class, the best
of which are valued very highly and
almost beyond limit. excepting the
ability or lavishness of the purchaser.
And thus there has arisen demand for
a class of horses the breeding and rear
ing of which not only offer attractive
profits, but occasional prizes that equal
in value those which tempt the miner to
abandon the comforts of home and bury
himself in wild and savage solitude in
pursuit of gold or jewels.
And yet the very same mistake is
made to-day by those much interested,
which. as has. been pointed out. has
been made any time these forty years
past, and in spite of the facts above
presented. In spite, too, of the fact that
while steer of three or four years old
sells for six or seven cents q pound on
the hoof. it is q very poor horse indeed
that does not bring fifteen or twenty
cents a pound at the same age, and but
one of moderate value which cannot be
sold with ease for thirty-five to fifty
cents . pound, while not at all rarely as
much IS a dollar pound is readily paid
for an extra animal or . well-matched
pair. The same is true of mules, and
mora o<, y,arha ne oc ronard the mora