VOL. LXVI
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPT. 9, 1911.
NO. 36
THE DRAFT HORSE
THK  EVOLUTION    OF  THK    HORSE
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD.
The Growing Numbers <>f Draft Horaea
in the United States
It takes a long time to substitute
pure bred draft horses and high grades
for the common indifferent ones that
are crazy cross breeds, whieh so predominate in this country. Just think of
it out of more than 8,000,000 of horses
in ten States of this country, viz: Illinois,  Kansas,     Wisconsin,        	
Pennsylvania, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa
and Utah, there were on
January lst only 14,900
pure bred, and something
over 300,000 high grades,
while the standard, thoroughbred, etc., to the
number of over 200,000,
and the balance crazy
bred, of indifferent quality. In other words, over
7,000,000 horses in these
States are of the kind that
sell for $75  to  $125  each.
The Loss Involved.
Any one can readily
pencil out the margin of
losses which are involved
in such a condition of
things, as all are familiar
with the prices of pure
bred and high grade
horses of all these breeds.
Of course  it    requires  as
much farm-grown feed to       	
grow a poor horse as it does a pure
bred and grade. And so in the loss of
feed and the difference in the value of
these horses comes millions of dollars
of loss. It is only by running up
against such facts that attention is arrested, and change comes in the methods of horse breeding and horse growing.
Pure Bred Sires Solves It.
One is utterly surprised to learn, in
view of the foregoing facts how many
Slres are in use which are not pure
bred, it js not necessary to say that
11 is the use of these horses that keeps
UP the great numbers of common
horses, as compared with high grades.
" tloes not matter whether the service
stallion is a good grade or not, for it
'" known that grade stallions, general-
>' called "scrubs" because unfit for ser-
lco in breeding, such sires as a rule
Produce common worthless colts.    This
naition has become so prevalent and
ruinous in some States that their legis-
a<«res have provided by law to drive
ut grade sires, and thus prevent the
"ss constantly going on in them. Wia-
"'"s,n has such a law, and under its
"fluence 'grade stallions are rapidly
^•"appearing from that State. Attempts
pass such a law in Indiana have been
liiff     a number of times,  but the  in-
erence of members of our legislature
hoMa'Ways m*evented ll and the state
s on to its "scrub" sires for horse
^aing like it does to sheep-killing
^ ■ and there's "where we're at,"
fro" WUh a" the facts about the losses
fro SUCh norse breeding, as well as
m dogs which destroy ten thousand
times  their  value  in  sheep  every  year.
.Many  Good   Draft   Bleeds.
There are many good draft horse
breeds, and all are happily growing in
numbers in all the central and western
States. While adaptation and location
has something to do with the selection
ol" these pure bred horses with which
to grade up our common breeds, the
Percheron has taken the lead in numbers, and may be found everywhere.
As we stated last week, the Percheron
numbers 63 per cent of all pure bred
draft   sires   in   the   ten   leading   horse
l.v.
There should be no "paddling," "dishing," or "winging" in or out, cutting or
interfering, nor should the fore legs
swing out or "roll," or the hind legs be
carried too close together or too far
apart. In judging of the action the
observer must note the movements of
ench leg and foot, the handling of each
joint and the carriage of the entire
body, as the horse walks and trots. The
draft horse should show a vigorous,
lively, energetic disposition, yet be docile, tractable and intelligent. He should
be neither sluggish,    nor    irritable, nor
vote time and care to this branch of
the farm industry. The horse is here
to stay and play his part in industrial
life.
A Group of Percheron  Mares and Foals.
breeding states then  named.
Canada and Mexico are calling on
the United States for sires, our own
states and territories are still in urgent
1 need of more and better draft horses,
and our farmers all over the United
States, are awaking to the fact that
pure bred draft mares are far more
profitable for farm work, than any other source of power. The outlook for
Percheron interests was never better
than at present. Prices are moderate,
booming is absent, the outlet is broad,
and the pure bred mares are going into
the hands of men who utilize them for
work as well as for breeding purposes.
The Great Walking Horse.
Tho walking qualities of the draft
horse have made him of great value on
the farm, as his speed at walking as
well as his great strength to do things
make him excel all others at farm and
road work. A recent bulletin from the
Department of Agriculture mentions
his points and splendid qualities, saying
that a draft horse does most of his
hard work at the walking gait. It is
therefore important that he should be
able to walk fast without tiring. He
should be able to walk four miles an
hour with a load. To do this the action must be perfectly regular, straight
and level. Joints must be quickly and
fully flexed; feet must be advanced and
set down without deviation from a
straight line. Soles of the feet should
turn up and show the shoes plainly as
the horse moves away from the observer, at both walk and trot. The
feet should be lifted quickly and even-;
ly, and be set down squarely and firm- |
excessively nervous.
Evolution of the Horse.
It has been a long road from Egypt
in 1740, B. C, when horses were mentioned in the Bible, down through the
evolutionary periods referred to in
Greek history, about the Olympian
games and horse races, and through
subsequent centuries to the present
perfect horse. But that is the long
road to high qualities over which everything comes. The horse has been
evolved from the size of a dog weighing about one hundred pounds to the
big 2,000 pounds drafter of the present day. As recent as in 1893 heavy
horses sold in the markets ^t $150 to
$200, which now bring $400 to $600—
high grade draft horses for heavy work.
The demand and prices for good draft
horses for this purpose have been gradually increasing for years, as shown by
the published reports of the Department of Agriculture. Notwithstanding
the power motors being brought into
use for a great many things, the demand and increasing prices for horses
is evident enough that power motors
have come simply to supplement the
usefulness of the horse, like electric
cars did to stalled and congested
steam transportation.
A Percheron Group
On this page we show a group of
splendid brood mares and their foals.
This is an ideal group, as seen on many
Percheron horse farms where several
fine pure bred brood mares are kept.
Such breeding yields a splendid income from these pure breds, and there
are a good many farms which now de-
Itl'LLETlN  ON RED  CLOVEB.
Farmers' Bulletin 455 on "Red
Clover." will soon be issued by the Department of Agriculture.
"The increasing difficulty of obtaining successful stands of clover," says
William A. Taylor, Acting Chief of the
Bureau of Plant Industry, "where in
former years it grew readily, constitutes  one  of  the  most serious  agricul-
         tural     problems      of    the
present generation. The
different viewpoints of
tho authors have been
combined and it is
thought that the data and
conclusions presented will
enable farmers in ' the
i lover-producing States to
continue the growth of
this crop with more certainty of success than is
at present the case in
many sections."
With continuous cropping, awtys the Bulletin
ani the consequent depletion of the soil of humus
ami plant food the difficulty of growing red clover
is greatly increased. This
condition must be met
and solved, since the loss
of clover or its equivalent
from the rotation leads
rapidly to a run-down farm
and unprofitable crop
yields.
It should be emphasized, however, that the mere introduction
of red clover into the farm rotation is
not in itself a sufficient procedure to
maintain indefinitely the productivity
of the farm. The clover plant adds
only the nitrates to the soil and removes large quantities of potash, phosphorus, and lime from the soil, especially when cut for hay and the manure
resulting therefrom is not returned to
the land. The increased supply of nitrogen may in fact stimulate the soil to
increased yields temporarily, only to
leave it after a few years in a condition
worse than if no clover had been grown.
The details of the proper handling of
fields in this connection will be given in
succeeding pages of the bulletin.
The failure of clover to produce satisfactory stands should be taken as a
warning that something is wrong. Under natural conditions the growing
vegetation remaining In place and rotting gradually fills up the soil rather
than depletes it, but if crop after crop
is removed from the ground much of
the valuable plant food is taken away.
Among the expedients which may be
adopted in order to retain clover in the
farm rotation is the increasing of the
fertility and humus content of the soil
(1) by the application of barnyard
manure, (2) by the plowing under of
any green manure crop that will produce sufficiently large growth, or (3)
by such extreme measures as the
spreading of straw on the land as a
means of increasing the humus content.
Another means of bringing clover again
into the rotation is the seeding of alsike
clover instead of using either the ordinary red   or  Mammotli   clover.      Alsike