The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1889-10-04

be truly said thatyWe lave only Just
begun to "breedn him. Important
lessons have been learned in the recent
past, and no other domestic animal in
the world is receiving 80 much mtelli-
gence and scientific skill in his produce
ton and development for tho one pur-y
pose for which lie is reared.
l yield to no one III a%dmiration Of
what has been accomplished, or mex
p~ectation Of what will yet bo done.
Shall we farmers, then, breed trotting
horses2 We know the high figures at
which they arc frequently sold.
Let lis follow tho experience OF Il
farmer who has one, two or half Il
dozen good mares. lie is intelligent
enough to know tho superior value Of Il
standardized" horse-one who can
rest his claim for excellence Of blood
upon tho performances Of his ancestors.
The services Of such q horse are OBJ
tanned, it matters little at what price,
within reasonable limits, for we all
know that it costs as much to raise q
poor colt us a good one and we must
use good sires anyhow. The farmers
boys become Interested In the subject of
trotters, and Il horse paper is subscribed
for. They are nearly all ably edited,
and give TO II reader much valuable
information. The boys arc 0 s'up'
on the HamDletonians and Mambrinoes,
the Clays and the Wilkeses, ana they
live in great expectations Of the COM
ing foals. At length tho looked-ror
day arrives, and the colt has a spot in
It's forehead and one white foot, and is
the most promising thing ever seen. In
following his dam, he now and then
shows u s'latural trotting action" and
tho only unfortunate thing about him
is the fact that we must wait SO long to
SEQ him 60. AS tho months 60 by we
pet him, and we bit him, and we han
dlo him, and at length the happy time
has come, and we buy q new sulky,
and ho goes just splendldly. We are
careful to jog him very gently. We are
sure 1t is In him, and we can afford to
wait. We think he would work bettor
with a different bit; so we try half
dozen or more Of different patterns and
immense claims, and we are rather
doubtful which is tho best. we fancy
his action would be better with toe
weights; so we get sets Of different
sizes, and conclude that his reach is
rather improved. Then VIC find that
he once cut himself Il little at his best
gait, and we get boots for him, and as
we thought others were required, we
obtained other devices, until wo had
HIM pretty we'll covered from his hoofs
to hls body. We had much trouble in
getting him properly shod, but at last
we found a man in a neighboring vii
lage, who had worked ncara race track,
and no did the work to suit us, with
the heels Of the hind shoes extending
we'll back behind the foot.
His speed developed finely. W. had no
place where we could time him, but we
were perfectly sure lie was we'll up in
the forties. at length some ono in our
n%eighborhood somehow, III q swap, got
an old wreck of a three.minute roader,
and proposed to give u colt q trial.
We were glad enough to show him u
quality, but somehow our colt wasn't
In the humor that day. We never saw
him break so. We resolved to show
him at the county fair. How we
groomed h,ml His coat slone like
satin. We had built for him when two
years old, a roomy box stall, which we
kept we'll Uttered. Now, it was our
delight to throw that door open for the
admiring gaze of II neighbors and
VISITORS. 1t was q proud day when we
droRe7apoD the track at the countylfair,-
but somehow, son Of q s'standard"
sire wasn't in hnmor again.
Well, other colts were coming on and
must be trained; SO we decided to sell
our splendid horse, now six years old.
We fixed the price ut $1,000. We
knew that other horses, not nearly his
equal, had sold for much larger sums,
but We had decided to Fix upon 4 mod
elate price. People didn't como to buy
him as we expected, and at length we
decided to take $3.50. But no one offered
IL. We were j little short OF money,
and II day a dealer said lie would
take him at $3.50, as the nominal price
to be told to inquirers, but the actual
cost was $500. We learned that was
the usual way such horses we're sold.
A slight calculation showed lis that he
had cost over $500-without taking the
time spel:t in handling him into account.
Tho other colts came OH finely. We
sold one for $3.50 cash-nominal price,
$l00O-Dut others didn't turn out SO
we'll, and half Of them went at $3.50,
and found their way to the city street
cars.
All this time the farm did very poorly.
1t took so much time to handle the
colts that the ORR fields were always
weedy, and the fences and buildings
could not DO kept In repair. Our ex-
penses were so heavy that we were
compelled to borrow money, which in
time embellislled our farm with a mort
gage, and finally the mortgage took the
farm. Subsequent investigation showed
us that our experience was but II
case in many hundreds Of similar char
actcr.
There is an important moral side to
this question which left its mark upon
the boys, but tho p%ecuniary result is
the subject under consideration.
But some Of my hearers are saying
that very fast horses are raised, and
thoy sell for big prices. Yes, L know
OF such. A friend OF mine has raised
q magnificent mare. Sho has trotted in
twenty-eight. When she was three his
foreman exercised her every day. The
next year u skillful driver was en-
ployed, who was TO do other work when