THE TREATMENT OF STALLIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1501, 21 August 1880, Page 7

THE TREATMENT OF STALLIONS.

" Farmer's Boy " writes under date the 1 6th : —When reviewing the book " How to Make the Farm Pay" a few weeks ago, I am sure you did not read it through, or you must assuredly have made copious extracts therefrom on the subject of " The Horse," page 265, of which the following is a short abstract. I append it, because it throws some light on my remarks of last week, and hope it will raise a discussion for the public good :— " The prevailing method of using stallions cannot be too strongly condemned. The unscrupulous owners of stallions tax them toa degree ruinous to them and their progeny. No stallion should be used regularly as a breeder till he is four years old. When three he may be put to a half-dozen mares, and his qualities tested, but too much must not be expected of his stock at this age. . . . But the present monstraus practice of allowing stallions to serve sixty or eighty mares in a single season of three months rapidly deteriorates the stock. Twenty mares, or at moßt two a week, is all that any stallion can be taxed without serious loss in the quality of his colts ; and instead of being confined all the time in the stable, eating heating food, they should be allowed to run together for a day or two in the pasture ; both the horse and the mare will appreciate their liberty, and the superiority of the foal will abundantly repay such an allowance. You will raise horses with much less disposition to be vicious. The breed of horses will continue to degenerate as long as the present exhaustive practice is continued. The only practical remedy that we now see is for farmers to club together and purchase a stallion, or raise one among themselves, keeping him for their own breeding. This course has been largely pursued in some communities, and a marked and most profitable improvement in the stock has been the result."

I myself knew a man who with a two-year-old colt served twenty mares, and nearly all missed, but he pocketed his L 100; another with a three-year-old served forty mares, most of which were in foal. These were two magnificent colts completely ruined.