Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1908 — Farm and Garden [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Farm and Garden

GOOD HORSES. Tha Preservation of Our Boat Native American Typos. By GEORGE M. ROMMEL. Pedantic persona may express some astonishment at the Idea of looking to a breed of saddle horses for carriage horses, but the records of horses with pedigrees are sufficient proof of the claim that the American saddle horse register contains some of our best carriage blood and that breeders who are using that blood Judiciously are acting wisely. There are certain lines of breeding found in the saddle horse register which can be relied upon to produce carriage horses. In Kentucky the

breeding of horses for individual excellence of conformation, quality and action is carried to a greater degree than in any other state, aui}, contrary to popular opinion, the most of the men outside of the thoroughbred establishments who make their living from horse breeding in Kentucky—in the Dine grass counties at least—are breeding not for speed, but for type. This has been going on for years, and for this reason the good, handsome horses of Kentucky have usually been appreciated, their history traced and their descendants accounted for. If the same careful attention to points of conformation and action had been shown fifty years ago by Morgan breeders in New England and had there been displayed the same enthusiasm for and loyalty to a valuable local type of horses there would now be no necessity for government aid to save the Morgan from destruction. If horsemen In the limestone sections of the corn belt had paid less atten’tion to the speed records of the stallions In their localities and more to their individuality the carriage horse work of the department of agriculture would be out of place; Specific work In horse breeding by the United States government was first made possible by the inclusion In the appropriation act for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1905, of an item of $25,000 for experiments in animal breeding and feeding in co-operation with state agricultural experiment stations. The reasons for taking up the jbreeding of carriage horses have been 'fully set forth in various publications, in articles for the press and In public addresses, but a recapitulation here may not be out of order. Briefly stated, they were: That carriage horses are. as a rule, the most valuable class on the market, that as a result of the strong demand the supply was gradually diminishing and that, notwithstanding all the Importations of the carriage type from abroad, the preferred horse was the American horse. Most important of all, however, was the feeling that steps should be taken to correct the practice of castrating valuable stallions and selling valuable mares for other lhan

breeding purposes. The department also felt that, although probably nothing could wean the American horseman from his attachment to the standard bred horse, the most useful characteristics of this horse should be preserved if it would continue to be of high value to the farmers of the ‘country. The Farmsr of tho Future. The future farmer will subirrigate his land and defy drought as well as floods. He will become a scientific forester, and every farm will produce *wood and lumber as well as wheat and apples. Women will work outdoors as heartily as men—ln fact, they will be the horticulturists and the truck gardeners. There will be closer relation between the producer and the consumer, ignoring a horde of middlemen who frequently waste more than is destroyed by Ignorant help and Inject foes combined. Under the alliance with the school tbe farm will be ▼alued not only for Its gross weight of products, but for its poems and Its education. y *'

CARMON, CARRIAGE STALLION AT HEAD OF GOVERNMENT STUD AT COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION.

BELMONT, OFTEN FOUND IN PEDIGREES OP AMERICAN CARRIAGE HORSES.