Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1859 — Farmer's Department. [ARTICLE]

Farmer's Department.

CONDUCTED BY AN AGRICULTURIST. GltlSl.xG llOdbE*. Best Horses for Use—General Object of our f armers—For what ice want i. arses—( ibjfictions, to the Business of Raising Horses, staled —Future Prospects, cfc. The question or raising horses, in Jasper county, has been so extensively debated, in the columns of the Gazette, the ptist year, that it is with reluctance I approach it at the present time. I may have misjudged of those articles, but I remember, that-nt the time they appeared, they seemed to me to be more fanciful than practical. This article will differ widely from many points in those, but whether its suggestions will tend to greater utility, is lor others to decide. W ith horses, as with everything else, the middjing good, tolerably cheap, every-day article is of more general usefulness than any others. 11" they are very inferior,, whether vicious, unsafe, balky or tender, their services will not pay lor their keeping. I a horse is very expensive or high-priced, few can afford to invest their capital in him. A large majorty of people have all they can do to to live comfortably from year to year. To live decently arid respectably, to pay their honest debts, to bestow a pittance in charity, to give their children a useful and religious education, ami to leave them a few hundred dollars, that thei 1 - children may have easier times than they themselves have enjoyed, is the extent of the ambition of a large majority of the people of this county. And this is more than a majority of life people in the world are able to do. We cannot afford to try experiments, or r.sk our means in uncertain enterprises. This being our condition, we ask how can our necessary wants be most cheaply supplied! In what branch of business can our labor meet the greatest reward! The quickest returns! We know that the dearest horses are not the most useful to us. That, in our circumstances, fancy horses and fast horses are not the horses we most need. What then! We have three purposes for which we want horses—for draught—for travel—for sale. First. We want more horses to assist, in plowing our lands and raising produce, and taking our grain to mill and to market; in hauling our wood and taking our families to religious worshop on the Sabbath, than for anything else. This is our common business. For this we do not need fasi horses, but compact, well-built horses, that possess the powers of endurance, i.e., tough horses. Horses that will keep in good working condition in winter, on hay and a moderate share of grain, with indifferent shelter. Second. We need horses for herding cattle on the open prairies. H re we require an occasional test of speed, although not great nor long continued, for it would not demand a horse of very extra despatch or bottom to out run a cow or ox. Third. For sale. Several farmers have entered pretty extensively into this branch of grazing, and some have made money at the business. There has been a steady home market for common draught horses at good prices, and a foreign market, that is, a market out of the county, at great prices for horses of extra quality. Our colts are mostly raised Tom mares that

‘ are occasionally worked throughout the year and pastured on the prairies in summer. On the approach of winter the colts are weaned, fed some grain with straw or hay and shel--1 tered during the hardest weather, and have |no other care. They usually look pretty j thin and squallid toward spring. They are mostly “broken,” that is. trained to work the second or third year, and by the fourth year are put to hard service, they are worth then, for good geldings, from SIOO to $125. A ' few horses of extra qualities have sold for | fancy prices. The care bestowed on colts is but little more than that devoted to tearing calves, and, at four years of age, the ox may be worth forty dollars, while a colt of the same age rates at a hundred. Why has not more capital be?n invested in this business! Why have not more farmers engaged in it! Not over one-hal!—probably not over one third—annually, of the brood marrs in the county, have colts—not half the farmers ! who keep mares ever raise a colt. There j must be some reason for this, either in the ! nature or profit of the business. Because we j cannot for a moment admit that a whole j community of farmers in a free country, with | free intercours - with each other, can for a 1 long period ofyears, remain in ignorance or neglect of their interest, especially vvhero i the facilities for change of business and adap- | tation to other useful employment, are so j great and so favorable as with us. | Why, then, do not more engage in it! One reason is directed against the business itself—that it opens the door to dissipation, and while it pays well, it is subject to many excitements and tempts to great risks. Another reason is. men, who have made a moderate income, at raising a few common ! cults annuuiiy, have been too olt'-n led to try ! the fancy breeds, by which they have changed j the character of their associates, (alien under j ; the power of blacklegs and sharpers, run in- i i to idleness, betting, racing and gambling, ; and in the end lost both their character and j 1 property. Frequent examples of this nature have occurred throughout the country, ma’ny prudent and moral men, well situated for the business, are deterred from engaging in it, by the reflex power of such examples. They judge that a business, liable to such results, is not safe and therefore shun it. Another reason is, there is personal dan- . ger in it. Marry careful men, neither wish \ to break or train- colts, nor have their sons | do it. They therefore raise only ju.-t what j they need tor 'heir own service; and as a j i span ot horses will last from seven to nine | ! vears, alter they have come to a working ! i,. , . ® age, tn. ir wants do not require a continual attention to the business, and they decline it. And tnares, that raise a colt every year, are not so valuable for other services. There is another objection which may influence some men. Horses’, like other stock, j are liable to die; and do not wish to risk so j much property in a single animal. It is al- I so necessary to keep horses in a fat and good I condition throughout the year, to insure a | sale at their lull value, whenever there may I be it market for them, and they arc-not pre- I pared to keep them so. But, the principal reason, why farmers, | here, do n t raise high-priced and fancy horses, besides its temptations, and dangers, is, j that th; business requires more capital than ordinary farmers are able to invest in it, be- ; fore they can realize. To he successlul. needs good stalls, tame pustules, good fences and great care. And even with this prepara- , tion it is even then uncertain. For not one ! colt, in a Hundred, is ever a fancy or last j horse-. Horses noted for beauty, force or ! speed, have nut always 'e-produced their like. Old Eclipse, out of a thousand colts, j never begat his like or equal. Hence this department of the business has not b on adapted to t he circumstances of our farmers, and although we itave, in Jasper county, the names of all the noted horses in the land, and the names of all the breeds, we have neither the stock, nor the means at present of producing it, and while we may frequently see many valuable horses both under the saddle and to the plow, we have never yet here, seen n first class horse. It is not probable, therefore, that farmers, will soon change their views, or enter large- j ly into this business here. If war should ensue, demanding teams and cavalry, our farm I horses might furnish some for that purpose, i and our facilities for raising them, might induce us, to enter, more extensively into it, but, at pr sent, we shall only gradually improve our breeds, for the purpose we now use them. But, no doubt, raising horses might be made a very profitable business, in j this county. sins of the Republicans are heavy, ! and, sooner or later, will crush their organization.— Chicago Times. I The sins of the Democratic party have crushed its organization.