The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1898-08-20
FARMER AND PLANTER.
HINTS TO HoRsE-BREEDERs.
a Few Suggestions that Forty Years Of
Observation Have Proved to
be Valuable.

Observation Have Proved to
be Valuable.
AT the earnest request of many farm
ers at this very important season of
the year, we will endeavor to give your
readers few suggestions that over 40
years OF close observation have firmly
Established as valuable. viz:
First-It requires six years from the
time Of breeding until we have the
animal of marketable age generally
sought for.
Second-The best time to 60 into the
business of horse-breeding is when
stock is cheap-little or no demand in
the market-when selections of the de-
sired types and blood can be carefully
made with the adaptation of both sires
and dams to be coupled together for
the most uniform results, with the
view of improving all the good quail
Ives OF our horses and Graduating
their defects at reasonable outlay of
money.
Third.-To maintain any of the spe-
cific types of horses, we must confine
ourselves in the selection of breeding
animals to the desired type, let it be
draft. coach, carriage or road horses,
and never try to improve either type
by crossing one type with another, for
the reason. by SO doing, we are in
great danger of losing the good quail
ties of both, and all subsequent breed
ing will be more or less guess-work;
an irreparable loss that many genera
tions will not eradicate.
Fourth.-While we may confine all
our horse-breeding to a specific type,
we can not expect to overcome the inn
projections of many of the individuals
OF the type without very careful selec-
tons of the brood mares and stations
that should be mated together for the
improvement of that type, and herein
lies the great secret Of the improve
ment of all the types of our best
hOrsea
Thousands upon thousands of farm
ers in the last decade have had some
experience in cross-breeding, or rather
''haphazard" breeding, from which the
country became flooded with a great
mass of horsehesh that they them
selves did not want and there proved
to be no sale for at living prices,
which should be lesson for us in all
future efforts in horse breeding.
The rapidly increasing demand for
good, sound horses of any of the we'll
defined types should induce every own
er of good brood mares to make spe-
cial effort to meet them with the best
stallious to be found.
The service fees should be a minor
consideration when the proper stall
lion is found that shows decided inn
provcment in the offspring with gen.
orally uniform results.
1t is not only the size, style and &C
tion of the stallion that should gain
him patronage, but his ancestral in
heritance, his ability to impress upon
his offspring the meritorious qualities
Of the family, with uniformity that
will guarantee to the owners of brood
mares THAT are nearly the counterpart
of the stallion, as nearly all mares and
stations generally are) such results as
will insure an active demand for the
produce. Almost all mares and stall
lions have some weak or defective
parts or parts OF their organization,
and here is where the greatest consid-
Grafton and good Judgment should be
exercised In the selection OF the stall
lion for every individual mare. as
the weakest part OF the horse
IS the estimate OF his ability,
just the same as the weak
est link IN the chain Is the estimated
tensil strength OF the chain. What
ever weakness or defect in the mare to
be bred is known to her owner land he
should know, the corresponding part
must be particularly strong in the
stallion she Is to be bred to. While the