The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-09
Farmers as Horse Breeders.

National Live took Journal.
Farmers hardly appreciate their advantages
in horse breeding at their full value. The per-
vading idea with most people, including farmers
themselves, Is that the man who is merely
farmer-the term being used in contradistinc-
ton to that of the breeders expected to rear
horses that are merely farm horses and are
nothing else. Now for work that is exclusively
of those kinds that belong to the farm-turning
the sod. dragging the harrow, pulling the seeder,
the reaper or the mower. hauling the hay to the
place of storing stacking, hauling the grain off
the field aud to the shipping point, and
divers other routine acts of mere drudgery-we
admit that the farmer need not place his stand
ard very high. The merest plug. provided, al
ways, that he is strong, good keeper, and
long liver. will answer for all these merely farm
duties. The mule has all the qualities named,
yet his place in the whir of business, travel, and
mere pleasure, is very restricted indeed;
yet it cannot lower the scrub horse III the esti-
nation of the public to say that the mule.
adorned only by the despicable trappings of the
street-car horse-the homely collar, names and
rope tugs-will outsell the plug horse in the
market, though he be nearly covered with fine
trappngs.
In place Of the farmer being tied up in his
breeding operations to any particular sort of
farm horse. he can breed the better class, either
for use on the road or for draft The passenger
locomotive may have capacity of forty miles
an hour, making this with ease attached to its
regular train, yet it can successfully haul
freight train doing this work in the very best
manner at ordinary freight-train speed, without
damage to itself. 1t is, like the wel-bred horse.
a machine capable Of rapid going or moderate
work, as wanted. The scrub horse, like a
strictly freight locomotive, has limited ca
pacity for speed, and beyond this neither of them
can go. horse may be of fine quality and
finely bred, and yet, with safety of life, limb
and health. do the ordinary work required of
horsefesh upon the farm, and while doing this
he may, incidentally, develop very valuable
qualities and be sought for at high figure
Some of the most remarkable animals in horse
history have come out of obscurity and hard
work. We once knew beginner at farming
commence operations with little four-year-old
mare, of not over $50 pounds weight and
mate The mate, though hundred pounds the
heavier, proved in nowise to be her equal at the
pillow or before load. The mare named by her
owner Queen, used up in turn several horses
that we're brought and hooked to the other end
of the evener She raised family or Queens,
male and female. ana in succession two different
farms were opened up and improved by this
mare and her progeny the surplus being sold at
sundry times for good prices. Never sick, never
with swelled legs or ailing Feet always ready to
eat and to work. Always wanted by buyers who
want good mettIe, and can tell it when they
see it. like history has occurred on
many farm, and could occur on many other
farms if judgment were used in selecting and
managing. In the days of progress in horse
breeding it is not necessary or wise to breed a
oNVSA
found conjoined with good material, and select
breeding and enterprise is so universal that it
permeates everywhere and no farmer, except he
be hid away among the hills of an inaccessible
locality, need debar himself from that which
men of enterprise bring to his own door. Right
ly viewed, he can breed and raise as good as any
man can raise, and, unlike the modern fattening
bullock, if the horse be handled with discretion,
he can earn his living as he goes along until he
has developed his form, and given the farmer
unmistakable pointers as to mis- cash value.