No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 423 



great many letters making complaint of this, but, gentlemen, don't 

 you see that we cannot cover everything at once in the law? This 

 act was simply a start, and we hope to improve it from time to 

 time, making such amendments as are shown to be proper, until 

 we have the law as we want it. Out in Wisconsin — this law is 

 based on their law — there have been numerous amendments in the 

 two years it has been in force. Things cannot be done in too radical 

 a manner. Don't criticize the law for its imperfections yet; it has 

 only gotten^ a start, and will be taken care of later. 



Now, regarding the matter of the elimination of the unsound 

 horse: when a horse is to be offered for public service, and the 

 owner wants a license from the State Livestock Sanitary Board, his 

 application must, as I said, be accompanied by the pedigree or cer- 

 tificate from the Association in which the horse is, and also by 

 the certificate of a veterinary surgeon, or if that is not possible, 

 by the owner's affidavit that the horse is free from all unsoundness. 

 You may say we are running great risks in accepting the owners' 

 affidavitj^ but you will notice that the form of the affidavit uses the 

 words, ''after diligent inquiry," and in the large majority of these 

 cases the owner is honest in what he swears to; if he is not, we 

 are very apt to learn it in some way very soon, and he makes 

 himself liable to prosecution. Then, too, there are not many of 

 these horses. 



There is another type of superior horses, to which a certificate of 

 approval is issued. This is in the manner of France, where they 

 pay a subsidy for certain types of horses, and in cases where a 

 horse is of superior type, and yet does not come under the subsidy 

 act, he is given a certificate of approval. It is a high recommenda- 

 tion to breeders of the excellence of these horses. There will not 

 be many of these certificates. It does eliminate the unsound horse, 

 but it does not eliminate the grade horse who has demonstrated his 

 superiority. It designates just what the horse is, and it is taken 

 for granted that the man who presented him for license is honest; 

 that he presented him in the right light, and will do what is right. 

 Now, this is the law as it is in force at the present time. 



Now, to come back to our subject, ''Is it worth while to encourage 

 horse breeding in Pennsylvania," I would simply say this: the figures 

 seem to warrant it. I will not repeat them, but will only say that 

 T spent a little time with the horsemen in Philadelphia last night, 

 in order to get prices to use here to-night. There are many men, 

 I was told, who would rather buy a horse in Pennsylvania than any- 

 where else, but they have not got the horses. "Why not?" I said. 

 He said "they have not the stock, nor the blood. You may wonder 

 why I buy my horses in Kentucky; I will tell you; they can guar- 

 antee their horses there; they know what they are breeding; here 

 in Pennsylvania we have no guarantee." The conclusion, then 

 would be simply this: it would be worth our while to encourage 

 horse breeding in this state, impressing on the breeders first of 

 all to breed in conformity to the market demands for these horses, 

 and then breed a certain class of horses. If you will read the 

 market quotations on horses, you will find that the lowest priced 

 horse is the unclassified horse. So it seems to me that the first 

 thing to do is to get our horses properly classified, and then intro- 

 duce pure blood, until we get our standard up to the market de- 

 mands; then there will be no trouble to find the market. 



