418 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



tell you what to do, but I hope by what I have to say to excite a 

 little discussion, and get your views. The stallion law that has been 

 passed will not be able to accomplish anything without your co- 

 operation, and I am here to try to enlist it. 



In the first place, we know that there is only one state .that has 

 more horses than Pennsylvania, and that is New York, but when 

 we take the United States' Hand Book, taking horses by counties, 

 you find that Pennsylvania stands twelfth. Why is this? Because 

 the larger proportion of our horses is in the cities. The proportion 

 on the farms is so much smaller. There are eleven states that have 

 more horses on the farm, and only one that has more in the cities. 

 Now, horses in the country may be taken as the source of supply; 

 horses in the cities may be taken as the basis of consumption. See 

 the vast difference between consumption and supply here! See the 

 great opening for the horse breeder here! We hear a great deal 

 about home protective tariffs, and we see it carried out in other 

 lines; but I don't know of any line to which it could be more profit- 

 ably applied than to keeping in the state the money that is annually 

 spent on horses, and letting other states take care of their own 

 products. 



The United States Department of Agriculture has compiled the 

 average prices of the Omaha market from 1901 to 1906, taking the 

 three standard horses, the coach horse, the draft horse, and the 

 road horse — the draft horse leading in numbers; he has held closely 

 to the average price of |150 as a minimum, and $295 as a maximum; 

 the coach horse, less in numbers, minimum, $300, maximum, $750; 

 road horses, $150 minimum, $375 maximum. This, it seems to me, 

 simply shows that the horse market has been stable; that the prices 

 it has shown within the last six years have been constant. Now, 

 I could give you statistics that would show an average increase. 

 In this state the average price is $109; this is an increase, because 

 it is the average paid for farm horses. For instance, in Texas, 

 which was formerly second, but is now third (Iowa is second, and 

 Omaha first) the price has dropped. And here is the reason: there 

 is no hay or grass for good pasture. A feAV years ago New York 

 was one of the greatest hay producing states in the Union, and I 

 think it is so yet. You put the average hay crop, and the aver- 

 age price of hay in two columns, and I think you will find them 

 good wealth. The average New York farms would not pay for the 

 buildings on them. Pennsj^lvania land, so far as the pasture is 

 concerned, rises in value in proportion to the pasture. So eminent 

 an authority as Sir Walter Bilbee of England, says that the lime- 

 stone soil is of the greatest importance to the breeder. You take 

 the Irish horses, especially the Irish hack horse; we all know what 

 he is, and he is the product of the limestone. He is light and 

 agile, and finely finished. The coarsest horses are produced on corn 

 soil. Illinois leads in the production of corn, and it has the highest 

 priced corn of any state, but its pasture produces the coarsest 

 horses. When you talk about feeding and fattening horses for 

 the market, then corn is a valuable factor in that discussion. So 

 with the sheep land. I think that in the matter of pasture we can 

 classify reasonably. Mr. Bradfute spoke this afternoon of the 

 ideal, and I think it is well always to have that in view, and since 

 I have been in the State I have tried to get an expression on that 

 point. 



