Connecticut western news., 1909-03-18
FARMERS SHOULD
 RAISE MORE HORSES
IT Is NOW A FAVORABLE TIME

A Few Remarks by a Horseman
 That are Worth PerusaI by the Farmers.
 Connecticut is far behind every other state in the Union, compared by the number of it's inhabitants, ln the horse raising industry says a correspondent or The Courant. There seems to be an old nreiudice that does not exist elsewhere against colt raising. In many parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the greater part of the other New Eng land states the farmers raise from one to three or four colts yearly. All through the middle and western states the busi- ness is carried on on a large scale. There are more horses i'll the United States than ever before; over twenty millions. Horses never were so high and it never paid so well to raise them as at the present time. Now, it costs very little, if any more, to raise colt to the spring it is three years old than 1t does steer or heifer. A well-kept fat three year-old steer might bring $75, he would have to be a good one, and 1t would be an extra good three-year old heifer that would bring as much as that. How many good three-year-old colts oo you think you could buy ill one day for $15O a piece and start in the morning and ride all day. The trouble is the ,loI 1r nd the business. The idea of raising horses to sell has not been custom in this To- cality; they associate colt raising with race tracks, training bills, high stallion fees. etc.
 All of these things car be eliminated from the expense account if 1t IS man- aged right. am not talking about rais- ing race horses alone, but the kind that will do to go to mill or to meeting, to blow, or draw @ moving machine, one that in an emergency you can get the doctor there the same day, or take your best girl to ride and make her look pleasant; the all around general purpose horse. Now I am not going to try to tell you just what type of mare will be the best brood mare, but do say, get good looking mare, for beauty is one of the greatest assets; get one that shows breeding and if she shows it she will have some even though you do not know what it is.
 Do not breed to old worn out mares, they will have no vitality to impart; mares that have been we'll treated are not too old at 15 or 16. Do not breed to unsound parents, especially if pain ac- companies the trouble, for they will surely transmit the unsoundness to their offspring. Some kinds of unsoundness that is brought on by strains or abuse, and the animal has recovered, in as much that there is no pain connected with it do no harm. For example, take a mare that has navicular, an incurable disease of the pravicular joint of the feet, perform the operation of neurotomy, or nerving as it is termed, and she will not transmit the disease. So says Dr Woods, a very eminent veterinary.
 
 experience with that disease. In select ing a stallion, select a well-bred, we'll made, handsome stallion, from one of the best of the trotting families. It does not pay as we'll to breed pacers for general purpose horses. You can find young representatives from the very best of our trotting families that are good individuals where the service fee is within the reach of most every one, from $25 to $50. And let me say again, be very particular about good looks, it is the easiest matter ill the world to.sell handsome horse, and an uphill job to get rid of homely one, be he ever so good. It IS an old saying that beauty is only skin deep, but in many kinds and cases, it goes deep into the pocket.
 The fact that the stallion is Bingen or an Axworthy or Peter the Great amounts to nothing, without he is q good individual, good disposition, and good gaited, with some good producing dams on the maternal side. All of these qualities a stallion requires to be good sire of general purpose or race horses. For size, would select a medium, horse that would weigh at maturity from 1,O5O to HOO pounds, and stand about 15-3 hands high. Brood mares that are handled judiciously can do all kinds of work without injury nine months of the eleven pregnancy, The judioious mating of the class of horses l have mentioned will produce a class of horses that are in demand everywhere at good prices. They would be a class that would average to trot in 2:35 with always the chance of producing the