Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1875 — Rearing Profitable Horses. [ARTICLE]

Rearing Profitable Horses.

A writer in one of the reports of the ! Agricultural Department states that speed ! in the horse has now become essential to i the comfort and’convenience of the peo- ! pie, and it commands its money value acI cordtngly. The wants as well as»the habits and tastes of the community have changed materially since railroad traveling has become so universal. Men accustomed to a speed of from twenty to thirty miles an hour in the cars cannot be expected to content themselves with the old and common rate five or six miles ah hpur, and the majority of people now want a horse to go off easily and without over urging at the rate of tenor even twelve miles an hour, and the horses that do it are not very common, whereas formerly they were only the exceptions to the general rate of speed. Speed is, to be sure, only one of the many qualities which are essential to a good roadster, and size, style, action, temper, form, constitution and enduring qualities are equally important in making a general. estimate of the character of the horses of this of of any other period. 1 The aggre gate money value has been greatly en-

hanced because the number of fast horses has and speed will command its price. The art of training the horse to the trot or to any other gait, and developing all his powers in it, is far better understood now than it was forty Or even twenty years ago, and the increase in speed has been to a great extent due to this source. Then it is a well-ascertained fact that the exercise and development of any particular qualities or capacities in animals not only enables them to excel in such characteristics, but when this course is followed up those characteristics become hereditary, or at least are much more easily trained and developed in. their. offspring. There is another thing which has operated most powerfully on the general improvement of our horses, especially in their speed, and that is the high price which they have commanded during the last few years. The profit made in producing firsc-class animals has been great, and the stimulus it has afforded to skill in breeding has been of itself sufficient to account for much of the progress that has been made. —N. Y. Herald.