22G ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



unit for the number of suitable remounts got by each stallion 



annually : 



New England District 240 Half-Morgans. 



[ 720 Halfbreds. 



Central District { 240 Half-Standardbreds. 



I 240 Saddlers. 

 120 Halfbreds. 



Southwestern District \ 120 Saddlers. 



I 120 Half-Standardbreds. 



^. , . , / ;5(]0 Halfbreds. 



Northwestern District \ 240 Half-Standardbreds. 



Total 2, 400 



A considerable number of the horses sired by the Morgan and 

 Standardbred stallions would be suitable for cavalry remounts, but a 

 much larger number would be preferable for the field artillery. The 

 number of estimated remounts by Morgans and Standardbreds is 

 840. In selecting stallions of these breeds, due consideration should 

 be given the necessity for artillery remounts. 



SELECTION OF BREEDING DISTRICTS. 



Those localities should be selected for breeding districts where con- 

 ditions are especially suited to horse raising, where the type of mares 

 is most likely to approach the type of horses desired for the army, 

 where a light type of horse will always in the long run be the most 

 profitable to the farmer and draft horses least likely to gain a firm 

 foothold, and where mares are sufficiently numerous to give the stal- 

 lions maximum service. A careful survey of the horse-raising dis- 

 tricts ot the country will be necessary before this question is settled, 

 and the returns of the Thirteenth Census can probably be used. The 

 Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture states that it 

 is impossible to use its returns for this purpose. Perhaps, however, 

 that Bureau could assist in making the survey. 



The government reservations where stallions would be kept between 

 the breeding seasons would be the points around which the work 

 would center. In some cases it might be possible to stand some stal- 

 lions on the central station itself. Stallions should be distributed in 

 lots of five around the central stations, and such further distribution 

 could be made as necessity required. At the close of the season they 

 would be returned to the central station and kept there until the next 

 or sent to another locality. 



THE EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE. 



The plan has experimental possibilities of the highest order, which 

 should be utilized. The leading features are the test of the value of 

 different breeds to produce remounts and the value of different soils 

 and climates for the purpose, which could soon be determined by the 

 army by keeping records of performance. Certain troops, squadrons, 

 and batteries, and entire regiments, could be supplied with re- 

 mounts bred in a certain way in certain localities, and the possibilities 

 of the plan from an experimental standpoint would thus become very 

 great. By the time a second large appropriation to purchase stal- 

 lions would, if ever, be necessary, the Government would be in pos- 

 session of facts which would enable it to show definitely whether the 



