advancing every day not in consequence of any casual or temporary caprice, but is attributable to the growing perception of the fact, among all horse-keepers, that it is not only as cheap, if one keeps a horse at all, to keep a good as to keep a bad one, but in reality much cheaper. The prime cost is the only difference to be considered: the price of stable-room, keep and care is identical; the wear and tear is infinitely less in the sound, able, useful animal than in the broken-down jade; the work which can be done and the value earned by the one is in no possible relation to those by the other; while, to conclude, the cash value of the superior animal,judiciously worked,—and by judiciously is meant profitably to the owner, as well as moderately and mercifully to the beast,—and properly tended, is actually increasing annually at a greater rate than that at which the inferior animal is deteriorating.
In other words, a four-year-old horse, well bought at a price of two or three hundred dollars or upward, will, when he has attained the age of seven or eight years, after having earned his meat and paid the interest of his prime cost by his services, be worth twice the money, either for working purposes or for sale, if the owner see fit to dispose of him; while an animal bought for half or a third of that price, at the same age, will probably, at the same increased age, be wholly worn out, valueless and useless; and the greater the excellence of the animal in the first instance, the greater and more rapid will be the increase in value; the lower his qualities, to begin, the speedier and more complete the deterioration.
Now, as to what constitutes value or excellence in all horses.—It is indisputably quickness of working; power to move or carry weight, and ability to endure for a length of time; to travel for a distance with the least decrease
