614 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



teen-two to sixteen hands {iiul \veij>lis at least 1,200 pounds. Of 

 course, for a vei;v lieavv man a heavier liorse than that would b*^ 

 necessary, but this kind of a horse can easily carry a man weighing 

 about 190 pounds. The middle weight should stand from fifteen-one 

 U) fifteen-two and weigh from 1,100 to 1,150 pounds. The liglit 

 weight hunter weighs less. Let us consider briefly some points re- 

 garding the relative economy of production of these diiferent classes. 

 In 1904 the average prices on the Chicago market for the different 

 classes of light horses were as follows: Carriage teams, |47.5.00 

 per pair; drivers, |150.00 per head; saddle horses, |160.00 per head. 

 The price per head for carriage horses would thus be |237.50 each, 

 so you see it is considerably more valuable than either of the othe'. 

 classes. In the five years from 1899 to 1904, inclusive, carriage 

 horses have increased in value much more rapidly than either of 

 the classes. The increase in value per head has been .f32.50 as 

 against an increase of |10.00 per head in the other two classes. 



In this connection it may be of interest to the audience to refer 

 briefly to some of the plans that are on foot for the production of a 

 breed of carriage horses in this country from American material on 

 an American foundation. The Department of Agriculture has re- 

 cently inaugurated some experiments along this line in cooperation 

 with "the Colorado Experiment Station at Fort Collins. We havo 

 purchased a few horses and the plan of the experiment is to develop 

 a breed of horses to satisfy the demand for caii-.-iage horses in this 

 countiT. I have called your attention to the fact that the increase 

 in value per head in five years has been three times as fast in the 

 case of carriage horses — more than three times as fast than that 

 of roadsters or saddle horses. It has also been greater than the 

 increase in value per head, of draft horses, in spite of the improve- 

 ment in business conditions, the increase in value per head for draft 

 horses on the Chicago market in five years being |22.00. Now that 

 increase has been due to the fact that the country does not have a 

 supply of carriage horses to meet the demands made on the market. 

 The supply has been largely obtained in past years by sending over 

 the country looking for horses that will fill this class, and the horses 

 that they have generally obtained have been those that are to a 

 certain extent standard-bred, that is, they are by standard sires 

 (in many cases they are standard on both sides). These horses have 

 been sent to the market and docked (if they were stallions they were 

 usually castrated), and turned into heavy harness horses. So far 

 as we have been able to find out, there has been no systematic at- 

 tempt to formulate a breed by means of this material, and the market 

 has been drawing this class of horse constantly from the breeding 

 field with the result that as time progresses the opportunity for 

 demonstrating the value of the native blood and developing a breed 

 of American carriage horses is constantly slipping from us and the 

 country is presented with a situation somewhat analagous to that 

 when the Conestoga draft horse and the old Morgan type began to 

 decline. 



The Department's work in this respect has a wider consequence, 

 perhaps, than the interests of the horse breeder alone. If a breed 

 of horses can. be developed to fill this demand, it means that breeds 

 of other classes of stock can likewise be developed. One of the most 

 hopeful indications of the possibilities of the country in this respect 



