220 A^'NUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



animal becomes more important; the people ride less and discard the 

 expensive pack transportation ; the horse is attached to a light vehicle 

 with which he is able to transport more than one person or a heavier 

 load. As the roads become better and the country more extensively 

 cultivated, the lighter horse is used more for pleasure or solely as a 

 means of drawing the carriage ; another type of horse becomes more 

 useful and economical, and the light-draft type appears to be suc- 

 ceeded by the heavy draft. Next comes the railroad, the trolley line, 

 and the automobile. The people ride and drive less, and fewer 

 horses of the riding types are bred. Riding is indulged in almost 

 solely for pleasure. A new country is a country on horseback; an 

 up-to-date one, a country in an easy chair. 



In the United States the type of horse suitable for army purposes 

 is now proportionately less numerous because it is not found necessary 

 to the civilians of the country, and the Quartermaster's Department 

 is finding it each year more difficult to supply the yearly demands of 

 the mounted branch of a small army. 



The horses of onr mounted branches are severely criticised by rep- 

 resentatives of foreign armies, while from our own officers come re- 

 ports of poor animals, poor performance, man}^ quickly developed 

 unsoundnesses, and short life. 



As an illustration — in the "West it is found that a marked change 

 has taken place in recent years in the so-called " cow pony." Twenty 

 years ago cattle ranches of the West were practically without fences 

 and unlimited, and the cow man found it necessary to breed and use 

 a type of quick, active pon3^ As the "West became settled and as 

 agriculture was taken up the large free ranges changed to the large 

 fenced pastures of a few years ago. These large pastures are now 

 being broken up into even smaller ones. The j'early round-up requir- 

 ing riding over immense distances and active work has about disap- 

 peared. To-day cattle are not chased and roped, but are driven into 

 the small pastures and pens and quietly handled. The quick cow 

 pony of the past has given place to a larger animal, frequently having 

 a cross of draft blood. It may be said that the cow pony of the "West 

 has practically disappeared. 



Virginia has long been famous for the horse known as the Virginia 

 hunter. Even the breeding of this type of horse has been sadlj'' 

 affected by the high price of heavy draft horses and further influ- 

 enced by the fact that only those hunter-bred horses that attained full 

 size brought high prices. Under the haphazard methods of breeding 

 in vogue in these sections not more than 1 in G colts could be de- 

 pended upon to attain the size necessary to bring a high price, and 

 the farmer found himself the possessor of 4 or 5 small horses for 

 which there was no steady market. ^^Tien he found that all draft 

 colts, in spite of minor blemishes, brought good prices as 3-year-olds, 

 he at once ceased to breed the hunter type, with its many misfits, and 

 commenced on heavy draft horses. The disappointment in the hunter- 

 bred horse would not have been so great had the breeding of this type 

 been done scientifically and rationally. The hunter-bred horse as 

 now raised in Virginia is sired almost entirely by stallions either sent 

 to the country gratis or sold at small prices to individuals by wealthy 

 people in the North, who desire hunters and are looking to the future 

 supply. A farmer living in the neighborhood of a Thoroughbred 



