BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 227 



plan had been successful, and whether any crosses or localities should 

 be eliminated from further consideration. It might be well, also, to 

 consider the feasibility of arranging with the breeders to reserve a 

 small number of high-class fillies each year for breeding purposes; 

 otherwise mare owners would be compelled to replace their mares by 

 purchase, which would bring the problem little nearer solution at the 

 end of twenty or fifty years than it was at the beginning. That it is 

 possible in time to fix the type desired for remounts is by no means 

 questionable, and this may indeed be very desirable. 



TERMS OF SKRVICE. 



No mare should be bred to a government stallion until she has been 

 approved by the proper officer as of the type suitable to produce 

 remounts. The common unsoundnesses, the tendency to which may 

 be transmitted from one generation to another, should naturally dis- 

 qualify a mare, but even more important would be the necessity to 

 refuse a mare on account of manifest faults of conformation, action, 

 or quality. 



The terms of service should be free, the owner of the mare entering 

 into a contract to give the War Department an option on the resulting 

 foal during the year it is 3 5'ears old (estimating a horse to be 1 year 

 old on the 1st of January after it is foaled) at a price to be fixed 

 before the mare is bred. A provision should be included in the con- 

 tract that the mare must remain in the owner's possession until the 

 foal is weaned, and that, in case the foal is sold before the War De- 

 partment has exercised its option, a service fee shall be exacted from 

 the breeder of the foal. Provision should be made, however, to cover 

 such emergencies as the death of the breeder, etc. 



The price contracted to be paid for remounts should be fixed annu- 

 ally for each State by a board of arbitration before the breeding sea- 

 son opens, subject to the approval of the Secretary of War. For 

 example, in January or February, 1912, this board would meet in 

 each State mentioned aboAe and agree upon the price to be paid for 

 remounts bred in that State to be purchased in 1916; in 1913 prices 

 to be paid in 1917 would be fixed, and so on. The arbitration board 

 should be composed of an officer of the army, an officer of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and a citizen residing in the State, preferabl}' 

 a competent horseman. In purchasing remounts, no discrimination 

 should be made against mares; colts should have been castrated at the 

 breeder's expense, preferably between 1 and 2 years of age. 



ORGANIZATION. 



The breeding work would be administered by the Bureau of Ani- 

 mal Industry of the Department of Agriculture through the Chief 

 of the Animal Husbandry Division. This division would direct the 

 work under the supervision of the Chief of the Bureau, and keep the 

 breeding records and the reports on the development of the foals. 

 Not later than January 1 of each year it should furnish a report for 

 transmission to the War Department on the actual number of 3-year- 

 olds in each breeding district available for purchase during the year 



