Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-03-21


Joint stock company of neighbors, aud a
saving of at least $40 to the cost of each
colt be realized, besides raising better
grade of horses in the community. For
instance, in the neighborhco1 in which
reside there are twenty farmers within a
radius OF three miles that raised last year
forty colts of the draft breeds, that paid
1875 for service fees The nearest points
where any imported horses are owned are
l.. Birdsey, Columbus, miles; Sim Far
low. Rolling Prairie, 10 miles; Geo. War
rem & Sons, Trenton, IA miles; DIR. Valer-
Jus & Co.. WATERFOWL, 20 miles. Of these
forty colts only twelve were from pure
bred sires. and they were about equally
eivided among the above named import
ers. Of these forty colts seven were sold
last fall. or at weaving time, for $3.50, a
trife less than $23 per head. Of course,
| don't think any of these colts would
have been sold at that age and price had
it not. been for the dry summer. Some
farmers in my vicinity are breeding Cleve-
land Bays, and with good success, but as
a rule they have had better mares Tor a
| foundation than our common farm mares.
There is one great trouble in breeding
| Cleveland Bays, French Coach or Road
ster horses, and that is, every farmer ex-
| poets, or claims he expects, a good colt
| from any kind OF scrub mare, it makes
no difference how old or badly crippled
she NAV be- And the result is that a
great many of our colts have lunches on
them that hurt them for carriage or road
horses, and if they are small they are very
unsaleable, while any large horse will sell
| lust as readily with punches as without,
although he will not bring quite so much
! money. For instance, there were seven
of these large colts sold at years in our
neighborheod last spring; five of these
were blemisbed, and the lowest that any
of them sold for was $le0, the highest
price paid 1920. The spring before l
sold 4-year-old gelding with two bone
spavins for $3.50 to horse dealer, and
| he shipped him to Dakota and did well
on him. Of course, he was heavy horse,
| and the number of pounds he weighed
was what sold him Now. | don't know
but what this stock Of horses will run out.
But I can safely say that there is not one
4-year-od colt in our neighborhood that
l.,
for sale, but what is picked up by this
class of buyers. In fact, [ cannot call to
mind single large horse that has been
| sold here but what was purchased by a
| horse dealer. So you see that we do not
obtain the highest prices by anv means
Any farmer that is making livestock
raising a part or whole Of his business,
| would not advice him to change. Any
farmer that is breeding horses for road or
carriage work at a profit, | say stick to it.
In making up this paper [ took for a
guide my own vicinity. Perhaps my
sale will not apply to every one. | am
certain that it will work on mixed or d.
versiied farming. Many farmers that
breed 10 so-called fast horses expect that
| their colts are either fast running or
trotting, and fail to understand why they
are not world-beaters. Very fast horses
are the produce of fast sires and dams al
so, and bred in one special line. The
average so-called trotting stallion has
| filed the country with scrubs, worthless
| for the turf and of no value for labor
| There are exceptious.) 1t has been said
| that a man is more apt to be struck with
| fast horse gotten by chance. There is
ONLY one of my neighbors that is breeding
| light horses as a business, and he is doing
we'll, | think, and his horses make good
road horses, and three of them together
| make good business team on the farm.
Now, I claim that a man can makei it pay
to raise large horses, but [ do not know
as he could make it pay if he bred or
raised nothing else upon his farm. The
disposition of the average farmer is to as
sumo that he knows his business better
than any one else can tell him. Well,
this is as it should be, in the main But
man must study the markets. He may
raise colt that suits him to perfection,
and yet seldom find customer ready TO
offer him a big price. Let the farmer
who proposes to raise stock satisfy him.
self as to that for which there is steady
demand at fair prices and determine to
get there. | would like to offer few
general hints as TO my mode of breeding
"horses for the farm" On a farm of 200
acres, all under cultivation, brood mares
and their colts do the entire road and
farm work. use my mares just the same
as Ill Auty "oio uoC Will lSol, anu nav :
had no bad results SO far. My colts
winter the first winter on oats, bran, bay
and cut corn stalks [ feed carrots once
or twice week to all the horses if I have
not got plenty of roots | feed oil meal
in small quantities. After the first win
ter let these colts rustic until the spring
they are years old, and if [ have dis
posed of nv 4-vear-olds | commence to
handle them and continue to use them
until they are sold [ have used them
always at years old, and have seen no
bad results so far. [ would insist upon
the sire of any of my colts having plenty
of exercise, for [ think as much depends
upon this as to his purity of blood.