Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1913 — INDIANA NEEDS PURE-BRED DRAFT HORSES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INDIANA NEEDS PURE-BRED DRAFT HORSES

By D. O.

THOMPSON, Animal Husbandry Department, Purdue University

*- Experiment Station. Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

Importers of draft horses state emphatically that there is considerably less profit in Importing draft mares than In bringing over Btallions. This , Is because of the fact that the Frenchman, the Belgian, the Englishman, and the Scot, all Sire loath to sell their best female breeding stock, realizing that as soon as the United States becomes thoroughly stocked with purebred mares, the call for Imported stock will be less. : The United States should raise its own breeding stock; our importers should within the next fifteen years become exporters of American-bred and raised draft Btallions and mares. Indiana farmers should give their attoentlon not only to raising draft horses to supply the demands of the city markets, but should also study the problem of supplying the world’s demands for pure-bred breeding stock. Farmers who are financially able, and who work a team themselves or have competent help, should Interest themselves in this economic proposition. There are two aspects of the questiottr The immediate financial returns are greater than when grade draft horses are raised. The selling value of the pair of two-year-old fillies shown above is easily double the

selling value of a pair of equally good but of grade breeding. The Indiana farmer who raised this pair of pure bred draft fillies would have expended an equal amount in growing a pair of grade fillies; the only difference is in the original investment and amount of risk on the mares. The other aspect of the question is this: Indiana, and the other states of the United States similarly situated, is adapted to raising draft horses of good quality. This has been demonstrated in the character of the grade draft horses she has raised. She is annually spending fortunes for pure bred stallions. Some of the best draft stallions in the world are in this state. Many of these stallions never have opportunity to mate with mares of pure breeding, hence their blood becomes! diffused, and their pure bred lineage broken, to the everlasting detriment of the horse breeding business. The work of generations of pure breeding is /shattered in contact with Indiana conditions. Ip order to conserve the pure blood of these highclass and royally-bred draft stallions, Indiana needs more pure bred draft mares. In this work of conservation there will be continued profit for the men who engage themselves and their capital in It

The pure breeding of this pair of Percheron fillies doubles their selling value, and that of any progeny they may have. They are Indiana and raised.