The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-08-13
Horses for the Farmer to Breed.

Horses lot the arluSr 10 DISSO.
That horses be bred to advantage
the business requires to be in suit
able hands. 1t is well to breed for
something out Of which considerable
value may be developed, though hav.
ing size, style, and fair ability for
travel. But the qualification we in
terpose, sin suitable hands," has no
little force in settling the question,
as a good deal of knowledge OF
horse matter is required to enable a
man to select material for the COM
bination named, and the very best of
Judgment is needed to enable any
man to maintain it in his breeding
operations. AS is well known of
trotting horses, We may secure what
appears to be fair trottlng forma
ton. vet not secure the indispensable
trotting instinct; or; as it may not
be inaptly termed, a genius for trot-
ting. In breeding, the higher class
of horses having sufficient size com
bination with an ability to reach out
and move with an attractive elasticity.
These combinations of size and gait,
combined with good looks, have been
so difficult to secure; with a reasonable
uniformity of success, that, what do we
see as the result? Nothing less than
that large proportion of our city car
rage teams are bred in part from the
two leading draft-horse strains, per
haps most frequently from the Percher-
on, because possibly from the less sur
plus hair upon the legs, and from some
strains of the French bred horse, We
get something quite remove from the
strictly draft horse, with height of
Is hands, and a weight of twelve hun
dred to thirteen hundred pounds, with
clever amount of good looks, an in
telligent disposition, free at his work,
and, withal, a pretty free stopper, be-
ing able to go along at good business
gate-say eight to nine miles an hour.
Now, horse of this sort never comes
amiss. He is rarely, if ever, so mettle-
some as not to be we'll adapted to all
classes of farm work and teaming, and
in every sense to make an excellent
"all-work horse.
IF the farmer confines his efforts to
breeding heavy class of horses, the
sires used being first-class, and the
dams good country mares, he will get
a strong lot of colts, good feeders, and
hardy, because pretty much all fresh
crosses made in this way-new blood
being used-will be found to result in
producing young stock possessing extra
vitality and vigor, such as will show
strong, elastic motion at all ages, and
at every gait, giving in growth good
return for the feed they consume. Ii
he happens to have among his brood
mares one or more that are we'll bred,
of other strains than draft, having re-
spectacle size and good action, the kind
of sire we speak of will, from such
mares, quite generally bring something
better than will be doomed to mere
farm drudgery, or to hauling brick or
stone about the streets of a city; in
other words, the class of horses that
are wanted for heavy family carriages,
are quite likely to spring from this un,
ion of nice, up-headed, good-sized
mares, and the fnest.lookers and best
steppers of the class referred to, The
heavy horse necessarily has power, be-
cause his mere weight is an unvarying
source of power when he leans forward
in the collar. Hence, if you breed in
such manner as will always give weight
you are pretty sure to get no property
that you will have practically to give
away, ssi is so commonly done with
much of the runty, mongrel stock forced
off in third.class markets in the cities
of the country-Country Gentleman