116 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



HORSE BREEDING. Dr. Carl W. Gay, who is in charge of the 

 work done by the Board under the Act of April 25th, 1907, (P. L. 92) 

 has prepared the follo\vlii<^.repoit: Duiing the past year there have 

 been issued 2,010 stalliou licenses in accordance with the law re- 

 (piiring tlie enrollment, with the State Livestock Sanitary Board, 

 of all stallions standing for public service in this State, which went 

 into effect January 1st, 1908. Of these, GGG were pure bred, 1,330 

 grade and 4 cross bred. Of the pure bred stallions licensed, 256 

 were Percheron, 211 Standard, 37 Belgian, 33 Shire, 29 French 

 Draft, 23 German Coach, 23 Hackney, 19 Clyesdale, 15 French Coach, 

 11 Morgan, 5 Saddle, 5 Thoroughbred, 3 Cleveland Bay, 3 Shetland 

 Pony and 1 Yorkshire Coach. The total number of stallions standing 

 for service is shown to be much greater in the western part of the 

 State than in either the central or eastern divisions. There is also 

 a difference in the type of horses in these different localities. With 

 the exception of the Standardbred, which is more or less generally 

 distributed, the majority of draft and coach stallions of any class 

 are in the Avestern counties, while those in the east are chiefly 

 Standardbred, Thoroughbred, Hackneys and Ponies. The leading 

 counties in the number of pure bred stallions are Crawford, Mercer, 

 Westmoreland, Washington and Chester, in the order named, while 

 in Elk, Cameron, Carbon, Dauphin, Fulton and Pike counties there 

 are no pure bred stallions whatever. The most recent acquisitions 

 of note to the breediug ranks in this state seem to have been drawn 

 especially from the Percheron and Belgian breeds. 



The comparatively small number of pure bred horses, in propor- 

 tion to the grades, licensed, is convincing evidence of a too liberal 

 patronage of the inferior sire, especially when the character of many 

 of these grade stallions is known. It is hoped that by requiring 

 these common bred stallions to be so represented and by eliminating 

 the wholly unfit, as provided by law, there may be created a senti- 

 ment in favor of the good sire, and that owners may be encouraged 

 to place more of the better class of stallions in service in this State. 



Some delay was experienced in issuing the license certificates the 

 past season, on account of the fact that the majority of the applica- 

 tions Vi'ere all received at the opening of the breeding season, 

 thereby completely overwhelming the office staff. If more of the 

 applications are made earlier in the year another season, it will be 

 possible to dispose of them with much more dispatch and to place 

 the licenses in the hands of the owners much more promptly. 

 Furthermore, a great many of these applications were not made in 

 proper form, but were wanting in the matter of pedigree certifi- 

 cate, required fee, or certificate or affidavit of soundness. Such 

 incomplete ai)i)lications were of necessity held for further corres- 

 pondence, so that by the time these irregularities were finally 

 adjusted considerable time had elapsed. Also, there were unavoid- 

 able complications encountered due to the action of one of the 

 pedigree registry associations in recinding a rule under which a 

 number of the registry certificates had been issued and the con- 

 sequent cancelling of all registrations made under that rule. 



The immense amount of correspondence whi(;h has been handled 

 in connection with this work has furnished a means of determining 

 the attitude of the breeders generally, and it is interesting to note 

 the way the law has been received by them. Objection, so far as the 

 intent and purpose of the law is concerned, comes chiefly from the 



