St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-09
FARM HORSES,
Points the Rural World Would
Have Kept in Mind.

To sell well, the horse must be able to
do some one thing well-must pull, or
travel, or show off in city fashion-in
other words, must be a draft horse,
trotter, roadster, or coach horse. The
world has less use every year for horses
that are too small to pull, and too slow
to travel, and too clumsy or awkward
to ''travel OF their form.'' Street cars
used to wear out great many of these
small insists but electricity is
now fast doing away with the street.
erS, and the farmer who expects TO
come out even and little ahead in the
horse business, must study what the
market demands. The conditions of
success in horse breeding are these-a
sire belonging to breed that has some
special purpose. dam of good size,
sound, and not to widely different from
the size, and plenty of feed. The gen.
eral farmer will find it most profitable to
produce draft horses. 1t is not worth
his while to grumble about the sub
varieties of draft horses called breeds.
A large, sound horse of any
of them, whether Percheron, French
draft, Clyde, Shire, Suffolk Punch,
or Belgian, will do well
enough. There is, of course, a choice
between breeds and between individu-
ais of the breeds. Take the best indi-
vidual within reach. There are farmers
with a special aptitude for handling
horses that will do better with the trot-
tiers, because their tastes run that way,
and they have special skill in handling
and selling them. What we insist on is
that the whole brood of mongrels, grades
and horses with 10 special purpose be
relocated to the rear. There is no an
tagOnism between the interests of
the draft breeders and the breed
erS of trotterS or rOadSterS. As farmers
increase III wealth, they want and will
have a roadster team-every farmer
needs one. Draft horses are not fit to
do the driving necessary on farm.
Horses with good blood, but not speed
enough to bring high prices, will meet
this want and do good farm work be-
sldeS-do, in fact, just as much work on
the farm as the dark horses. The draft
horse sells readily, and for cash, and
the farmer has rs trouble in breaking
him. This is the browning excellence.
1t is vain, however, to expect success
unless the owner feeds, and that liber-
ally. The iGea that a colt must be
trained to rough it in order to make
him tough aud hardy lies at the root of
the failure of many farmers in handling
horses. Draft horses always require
generous feeding, especially the first
winter. After that they require abund-
ant feed, but 1t need not be expensive
for instance. a winter pasture OF long,
blue grass, shelter, the run of the hay
stack. salt and water. Even then. how
ever, little grain the second winter
will pay. 1t is mistake to suppose
THAT scant feeding makes ahorse hardy.
1t is all important to breed only from
sound dams. The tendency to spiints.
sprains, opthalmia. nervousness and
vice are all matters of Inheritance. A
rattle-headed mare will be likely to
produce rattle-headeu colt. There is
little probability that the market for
first-class horses that have any special
purpose, any reason for their existence,
will ever be over stocked. The world