274 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Yironment, and today we no longer think of the horse and the rail- 

 road train as competitors. 



The number of horses produced in America at present is 

 greater than ever before, and the prices average higher than in any- 

 time past. This is due to two permanent and potent factors. First, 

 that as colonization and civilization advance, the horse becomes 

 more indispensable to the people of our country ; second, the people 

 of other parts of the world are realizing the value of America as a 

 breeding ground for good horses and mules. Consequently, the 

 yearly export of these classes of animals is a heavy drain on the 

 stock in the country. Supply and demand are the factors which 

 regulate prices in all kinds of business, hence the great demand of 

 our own and foreign countries upon the limited supply has brought 

 about the present high prices. 



There is another reason which, though of somewhat different 

 nature, was very important in its temporary effect, namely, the 

 shamefully low prices paid for horses during what is now come to 

 be termed "The horse market depression" of 1895-6-7. This re- 

 sulted principally from two causes. First, and of little importance, 

 the passing out of use of the horse-street-car. Second, and vastly 

 important, the financial panic of 1893 and the subsequent years. 

 The bicycle had only a very slight effect upon the price of horses. 

 The first brought about only a temporary derangement of the mar- 

 ket classes and the prices. Its effect was felt when the great num- 

 iber of light horses previously used for car service were thrown upon 

 the market to be taken up by a new class of buyers. They had to 

 be sold at a sacrifice, because the market which they were intended 

 to supply had ceased to exist. Hence, this fact started the down- 

 -ward course of the prices on the horse market. The second of these 

 reasons, namely, the business panic, was first felt when buyers re- 

 fused to take horses at any other than sacrifice prices, and more 

 severely when scarcity of money began to stop business to some ex- 

 tent, and thus decrease the demand for horses. 



When men who had horses for sale became aware of the lower- 

 ing price of their stock they did, in most cases, the thing which only 

 tended to aggravate the already congested condition, by placing their 

 horses on an over-supplied market. The result of their action could 

 be nothing other than to add impetus to the already descending 

 market, consequently the extremely low prices and slight demand 

 for horses during 1895-6-7. 



The prices were at their lowest when the salable horses 

 throughout the country had been hurriedly thrown upon the mar- 



