The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-08-01

The fleece of the Shropshire sells at
a very high figure. The Shropshire
produces the highest priced mutton
that goes on the market. Time and
time again have grade Shropshire
lambs topped the Chicago and other
leading markets. At the leading shows,
such as the International, held at
Chicago, Shropshire wethers have al
ways carried away large portion of
the laurels for champion mutton;
hence very profitable sheep adapted
to most all conditions and most all
people.
Horse Department on the Farm.
There is no department of the west
ern farm that has more promise in it
than the horse department if it is
stocked with horses of the right kind.
There has never been any profit and
there never will be in the small horse
that can neither pull nor trot, nor in
the large horse that is not well bred,
we'll formed, and well fed. There
never has been any profit in the mon
grels, misfits or horses developed by
the cross breeding of such distinct
types as the roadster and the draft
horse. There is no profit to the man
who breeds his horses miscellaneOusly
according as the notion takes him,
nor is there any profit in growing any
kind of horses unless they are proper
ly nourished and developed.
There is good money in it for the
men who are growing good, large, well
developed rOadsterS or coach horses.
There is more money, we think, for
the average farmer who will turn his
attention to a limited extent to the
large draft horses. You cannot afford
to keep mare for the chance of
colt but you can afford to use brood
mares on your farm for farm work,
keeping perhaps one or two more
than would be absolutely necessary
for that work, and breed them to the
best draft stallion you can get. The
start of the colt is the important thing,
and you make that start when you
mate your mare. A bad start cannot
result in good ending. If you don't
have the right architectural plans you
cannot expect to make a good house,
having good plans, without good car
penters to carry them out. A good
many men seem to have an idea that
the higher price they pay for stallion
the better stallion they get and the
better chance there is for obtaining a
good colt. That depends altogether
on the elements of cost.
We can afford to pay a good round
price for first-class stallion provided
he represents high merit in the breed
individual merit in the animal himself
and prepOtency or power to transmit
both individual and breed merit to-
his progeny. Such horses sell high and
are always cheap at the price. We
cannot however, afford to pay large
prices for inferior animals, nor does
the increased cost incurred by the
seller in organizing a company to buy
his generally on long time
add anything to the value of the SIRE
Adding to the price does not always
mean adding to the value, and it is the
value that farmers should consider
The less, therefore, of these elements
which add nothing to the real value
that you have in the cost of the ami
NAL the greater will be your profit
The great difficulty in the horse
business is that it will not pay any
ordinary farmer to own stallion for
his own use, the cost for one even at
a fair price being too much for that.
Therefore there must be some kind OF
cooperation either in the patronage of
the stallion or in the purchase, and
just here great many farmers who