BUREAU OF ANIMAL. INDUSTRY. 221 



stallion, and feeling that he would like to breed a hunter, will take 

 advantage of the nearest and cheapest stallion in his neighborhood, 

 regardless of what the result may be. All that he considers neces- 

 sary is that the horse should be, first, a Thoroughbred ; and, second, 

 that he should be a pleasing individual ; never taking into considera- 

 tion the fact that the mare might not be suited to the horse nor the 

 horse to the mare. Hence the misfits, the discouragement, and the 

 decrease in number of the hunter type. It is said that not one-tenth 

 as many hunters are bred in Virginia to-day as formerly. 



Even more appalling than the present scarcity of horses suitable 

 for military purposes in this country is the large number of unsound 

 horses that are constantly being examined by purchasing officers. 

 Horses of this class can be the result of but one thing, and that is 

 an absolutely irrational system of breeding, or the lack of any system 

 whatsoever. When it is remembered that a sound and serviceable 

 horse of a particular type costs no more to raise than an unsound 

 horse, the immense waste caused by our present lack of system is 

 only made more apparent. 



The enactment in a number of States of laws whose effect is to 

 prohibit the standing of unsound stallions for public service will no 

 doubt, in time, tend to correct this evil ; but not until the horse- 

 raising States generally prohibit absolutely the public stud service 

 of unsound stallions will unsound horses be less common on the 

 market. Sudi legislation in one State is an excellent thing for that 

 particular State, but it is very likely to drive all the unsound stal- 

 lions across the borders into adjoining States where laws against the 

 unsound stallion do not exist. 



The next census will probably show that there are in the neighbor- 

 hood of 23,000.000 horses in the United States. It would seem that 

 in this immense number there must be many thousands of horses suit- 

 able as remounts for the army, and there probably are; but the fact 

 that the type desired is comparatively scarce, and that the horses that 

 would do are scattered over an immense area and are in demand for 

 other purposes than the military, makes it not only expensive and 

 impracticable to obtain them, but next to impossible to do so. 



The purchase of young horses for the army during the last fiscal 

 year has been more or less successful, but all officers connected with 

 the Quartermaster's Department have reported that while they were 

 obtaining a fair number of horses, they could see no prospect of 

 obtaining them in any numl)er in future years, and all report the 

 apparent necessity for the Government's assistance in the rational 

 breeding of army horses in the country. 



As no system of supply, so far as the army is concerned, which 

 deals with peace conditions alone, is complete, the War Department 

 must constantly keep in mind the possibilities of war, and it is not 

 surprising that, finding difficulty in purchasing a supply of remounts 

 for the peace army, there should be more or less uneasiness when 

 war requirements are considered. 



The waste of horseflesh in war times is enormous, and in a war of 

 any magnitude in which this country might be engaged the number 

 of horses required will not be confined to the thousands per year, but 

 will extend into the hundreds of thousands. 



