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Show WHERE PONIES ARE RAISED Small Animals Profitably Bred on a Pennsylvania Farm Are Worth I Dollar Pound, Live Weight. I J At the little town of Knoxville, Pa I ran against, so to speak, a uniqu' enterprise under the name of the "Vil lage Pony Farm," says a writer Ji Rural New Yorker. It is owned by f couple of gentlemen in the town, whc are engaged iu other business, but who find their "farming" profitable They have about 150 acres of hillside pasture land, only a short distance from town. In the village they have their barns, and considerable room Is required for the ponies. I should judge that a3 much stall room 13 given giv-en them as is usually allotted to a A Pet and aJfony, full-sized horse, but the storage capacity ca-pacity for hay need not be so much. Sixty-five ponies are now in the lot (I do not know whether to -call' it flock, herd or what), and I presume some more might be added in a usual season. It Is now so dry that any amount of pasture would be short. It Is only about two years since the business busi-ness was begun in earnest, and it is needless to say that a large proportion propor-tion of the ponies have been purchased. pur-chased. Quite a number, however, have been bred, and the colts are finding find-ing a ready sale, some of them at only a few weeks of age. In that case they are delivered to the purchasers only after they reach the age of four months. These colts sell, if of good form and marking, at $70 to $125. A pony four years old was pointed out to me that Is valued at $150, and a pair of smaller ones, well matched, are valued at $500. It requires little more to keep these ponies than it does to keep a good-sized dog, I was told. No grain is fed unless for special reasons, rea-sons, and they eat but a moderate amount of hay. Breeding ponies is a little difficult, and I Judge that one should not count too many chickens before hatching. The business appears ap-pears to beat the pigeon scheme "all hollow," but it requires a good deal of capital to start it extensively. The ponies, even the stallions, are kind, and the little girl in the picture, now two years old, goes up and throws her arms around the neck of any of them. That pair of black ponies to which I alluded weighs about 500 pounds. They appear to be under three feet high. You see, they are worth a dollar dol-lar a pound, live weight. |