The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1911-08-03
IMPROVE OUR HORSES
Any Farmer Can Raise Good
Draft Horses II He Will.

Stallion Must Have Quality, Individual
Merit, With Square, True, Free,
Perfect, snappy Action
Avoid the Scrub.
(By DONALD CAMPBELL. Hannaford.
N. d.
For hundreds of years horse breed
ers" In this country and in Europe
have been hard at work trying to i'm
prove the draft horse" For a long
time they made slow progress, owing
to the fact that the fundamental prin-
ciple Of breeding was not as we'll un-
derstood az 1t ia at the present time.
Those Of us who have attended the In
ternational exposition at Chicago.
since its beginning, can see very plain
ly that great improvement has been
made in all the draft breeds within
the past ten years.
1t IS both encouraging and highly
pleasing for US to note that the home
bred horses" shown there compare
very favorably with the best that the
importers can find in Europe. "Oh,
b-.,' you say, its the big breeders
that are doing all that" How can
poor farmer hope to do anything like
them?" Let US see. Do you know
that nearly all the grand Percherons
raised In France are raised by COM
paratively poor men who are small
farmers? Not big ones like we have
here today. Do you know that prac-
tically Ill the Clydesdales raised in
Scotland are raised by men who do
not even own the few acres on which
they live? The champion Clydesdale
mare at the last International was
bred in Illinois, and owned by a ten
ant farmer Of that state. The cham
pion Percheron mare was bred and
owned In Iowa. Yes, the big or the
small northwestern farmer can raise
good draft horses If he will; but be-
cause there has been little or no con-
csntrated effort or properly planned
and we'll directed scheme of breeding
on the farm, he can never do 1t by
following the methods Of the average
farmer These are not scientific 1t
has been hit or miss business, and
we are still seeking to produce an i'm
farmers actually trying to do this by
breeding the same mare to Percheron
stallion this season, to Clydesdale
the next, to jackass the next, and so
on indefinitely. 1t is high time to
abandon the foolish policy Of indis-
criminate horse breeding.
Let US see how we can improve on
this method. First you must select
one of the draft breeds. I will not
attempt to tell you which one it should
be. That should be governed by your
own liking. Let us first consider the
brood mare. Farmers often expect,
and wrongly so, that ten or twelve
hundred pound mare mated with ton
stallion will produce high class draft
colt. Violent crosses Of this sort
should not be made. Breed like to
like" and like will be produced with
q fair degree of certainty. The nearer
the mare approximates the sire in
blood, in type, in conformation, and
in temperament, the better will be the
outcome of their mating. An extra
good sire does not necessarily offset
all the weak points Of the mare. No
matter how fine may be the sires used,
it is slow uphill disappointing work
to build up fine stock Of horses from
understood mixed-bred poorly formed
mares. 1t is an insult to the sire to
mate him with such mares, and his
opportunity for great good is ruined
thereby. Stations have come to US
from abroad that have made great rec
ords among mares Of their own breed
and type at home. Here they are
mated hopelessly with unsuitable
mares, and their breed has often been
wrongly blamed for their failure. The
brood mare, to produce typical draft
stock, must herself be Of draft type,
that Is, low down, wide, roomy, COM
pact, strong in muscle, with good fiat,
clean, flinty bone, free from undue
coarseness, especially good in legs,
joints and feet, we'll set hooks, reason
ably long slOplng pasterns and GOOD
large well shaped hoof. If you can
possibly afford, it, and are sure that
you will take proper care Of her and
her colts, by all means have pure
bred mare. But If you won't take good
care of them you had better leave that
part OF the business to those who will.
We should have more pure-bred
mares in our northwest. The Interna,
tional exposition has proven, time and
again, that ours can :aise as good
draft horse as any other country on
earth. Then why should we be send
ing thousands of dollars to Europe
every year for stations.
Now with regard TO the stallion that