Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1904-02-18

only small horse the farmer should
raise. He fills a niche that no other
can, ifbred right. What mean by be-
ing bred rightcan be summed UP in few
words, He should be intensely bred
for speed, size, action, conformation,
disposition and color, and all these
/ qualities should be inherited as far as
possible. The standard bred horse if
right. makes a first class all purpose
horse: Something We cannot do with
out and something that will always
sell. They should be from l5s to l6a
hands high and weighs from HOO to
1900 pounds. The higher the action
the better. Good high acting stand
and bred horses have been winning
everything OF late years in the show
ring as carriage horses. Get little
away from the old way Of breeding for
speed qualities alone, get the size. 1t
is fact that only one horse out of a
thousand is a cracker-Jack for speed,
then what are you going to do with
the other Nine hundred and ninety
nine ii they are all little fellows? If
they are large enough for carriage
horses, the figures wegave you q while
ago will tell you what you can do With
them on the market, and there Is
nothing nicer to pillow corn with, or to
drive to town. Then you will get
more average speed from large horses
than small ones. You will tind by
looking it up that a majority Of
horses with records below EOS are
above the medium size for trotters. |
am not believer in ra ak crosses; that
is foreign blood upon native stock. III
that is done great care must be exer-
cised in selection or you must expect
four or tive crosses before you will any
way near approach new type. From
the Mexican and Texas mustang you
Older men should have learned lesson
along this line. The mustang was es-
sentially a thoroughbred SO far as
blood was concerned. He was a des-
cendant OF the thoroughbred horses
turned loose Oh escaped from the
Spaniards at the time of the Conquest
Iof Mexico His environments changed
him from the elegant Barb or Arabian
OF which poets love to sing, to the lit
tie Visions brute that it was very diff
cult to teach anything but run and
tight. He had thin feet, eve neck
and temper like the hot Tamale of
his native heath. The race was per-
petuated on account of these qualities.
1t was a case of the survival of the fit
test and not the best. He got his thin
| flat feet because he needed them to
travel over the sod and sandy soil. He
became eve necked because he got his
feed OIL the ground. The neck wds
symmetrical while his head was down
| feeding, but when he raised his head
| the arch was on the under side instead
of on top. He was vicious because he
had to be to live and hold his own
against beasts of prey. The head OF
the family was not the most dneile,
/
er: so, that one important quality in
a wild horse was inbred and perpetual.
So you see the survival OF the fittest
does not mean always the survival of
the best. Natural environment de-
| cideS as to the tittest. Intelligent
change Of the environment with intel
! ligent breeding and care will alone
J bring you the best. Put cat in the
| air, out OF her element and she is a
! prey of the birds; put her on the ground
and compel the birds to stay there too
and conditions are speedily reversed.
III you want to try an experiment as
to producing another example of the
survival OF the titteSt, take good
young colt and make him rustic for
his food with no shelter or care, and
you will soon have long haired, thick
hided brute Shrunken in size to fit his
rations, he has got to be so to live.
III he turns out to be fair to good
horse it will be because an Inherited
constitution has SO bolStered him up
that he is good In spite OF the treat
mcnt and not because o. IL. Retnem-
Der that a part Of the individuality of
your horse comes from the feed box,
depending too where the feed box is
located. and must be associated with
the blanket, curry comb, brush and
rub-rag. was speaking Of the mus
tang while ago--some undertook to
improve on them by crossing with
heavy draft horses; the result was
failure. Thecross was too rank. The
progeny was an improvement upon size
In many cases, but all symmetry was
lost. The breeder who tried that
once never forgot it if he had sense
enough to realize failure when he
saw it.
Crossing with standard bred horses
or one cross of the modern civilized
thoroughbred and then crossing with
the standard bred trotter improved
the stock, but it took generations to
get out of them what centuries of the