Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1899-06-10
Importance OF Good sIres.


Prof. E. Davenport, in an address
to horsemen, said:
I would emphasize the Importance
OF good sires. These mares will not
be purely bred animals; they would
be too expensive. They viii be sim
ply good, vigorous specimens, capable
Of giving plenty Of milk. The quality
must come from the sire, where quail
ity means most, because one animal
can impart it to so many. Such asso-
Citations as these can render the horse
interests a valuable service by using
every influence to hasten the day or
stallion inspection and license here In
America. This farmer we are con-
sidering is not a horseman; that L, is
not able to detect the slighter faults
Of animals. The hook may be slightly
too narrow, or the leg a little crooked,
or the bone not quite fat enough, or
the loin a little light, and he will nos
be able to detect IL. / know farmer
who considers himself something OF
horseman who yet did not notice q
hind leg of a colt so poor at the hook
that it was certain to go to pieces. l
know a part-bred Percheron stallion
that is considered a great horse with
the farmers because he takes fat like
a hog and has a heavy, arching neck
but his sickle hook gives him leg so
bent as to entirely disqualify him in
the eye of even a fair Judge. So do
other parts escape the notice OF class
of good men who are not at all ignor-
ant, but whose information and ex-
pert knowledge lie along other lines.
=, Io1r -r1A ho1T
them out. As it is now, the owner OF
a strictly frst-class, well-bred and reg
istered stallion has no chance out over
the country as compared with the own
er of part-bred horse that will fatten
readily, and that, costing but a frac-
ton of the other, can be stood for per-
haps only two or three dollars less
| and get all the custom. This compels
| the owner of the good stallion to cut
prices to a point where in order to Sc
cure decent returns SO much service Is
taken as to render next to worthless
a large share of the colts gotten. We
shall produce plenty OF scalaWae
| horses until the part-bred stallion is
driven out of business, and that will
| be done only by system Of inspec-
| ton. 1t costs as much to raise a poor
horse as it does a good one. The de-
| ficient hook or loin is not a thing that
| takes less feed. 1t is no element OF
cheapness until it comes before the ole
| horseman in the great markets, and
| the general horse raiser must be in
sured against his own foolishness il
this matter by a thorough system o.
inspection. Until that time comes the
| 6rpodorS of horses
will be subject to a ruinous competition
| from part-bred stations.
The system that has been in vogue
has produced some good horses, but
it has produced a good many more poor
ones. The horse is a highly developed
animal, and all his parts are developed
| far beyond their natural state. If, in
a given Individual, one part is not fully
developed it cannot stand the strain
put upon it by the other and better de-
veloped parts, and it is with a horse
| as with a chain, or tile drain, the
whole is no better than the poorest
spot. What mixed and heterogeneous
| mass of horsehesh we have been guilty
of producing! And yet the stallionee1
and the law are more in the blame
than the farmer. The horse raiser
| should fix his mind definitely upon the
class of horses that he proposes to pro-
| duce. choose his stallion accordingly
and depend upon him for that quality
that always distinguishes the excellent
from the ordinary. He should never
sleeping or waking, forget his OWL
limitations, but remember that while
the professional horseman must pro-
duce the breeder, the racer, and the
phenomenal individuals out Of the besi
material of the world, yet that the pro-
duction of the great mass Of com
mercial horses out of common mare:
and by approved sires is his own pc
culiar field, in which good profits car
always be realized, if the farmer keep;
his head and does not produce worth
less stuff Cheap horses are recruited
with sufficient rapidity from the rank:
above, both by age and accident, anc
we cannot afford to grow them as :
business.