228 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and the probable number of these that will make satisfactory re- 

 mounts. A competent animal husbandman should be employed, with 

 headquarters at Washington, as a traveling inspector of breeding sta- 

 tions, to keep the Department in close touch with the work in addition 

 to receiving regular reports from the breeding districts. 



The men in charge of the breeding districts should be obtained 

 from the field force of the Bureau of Animal Industry. These men 

 should be good veterinarians, with a thorough knoAvledge of horse 

 husbandry. Their field experience would make them invaluable for 

 this work, and the loss to the field service of the Bureau would be 

 more than compensated by the fact that they could handle the work 

 better than any men who might be obtained from the outside. If the 

 Government undertakes this project it must do so under the most 

 favorable auspices, and no risk of failure should be run. _ As success 

 would largely depend on the ability of the men in charge in the field, 

 the best men available should be obtained. The expert assistants to 

 men in charge of breeding districts should be animal husbandry 



fraduates of agricultural colleges, and not veterinarians. This would 

 alance the service in a very effective way. 



The duties of these men would be to direct the work at the breeding 

 stations in their districts, to attend to the keeping of the records, to 

 advise mare owners on the care of horses, and, if possible, to travel 

 through their districts before the breeding season opens and approve 

 mares, directing how they should be bred, if necessary. Until the 

 work is on a thorough, well-organized basis, the approval of mares 

 should be done by the men in charge of districts or their expert 

 assistants. 



The men in charge of stallions as stud grooms should be employees 

 of the Department of Agriculture, for whose appointment experience 

 in the handling of horses should be the first consideration. Prefer- 

 ence should be given men who had been honorably discharged from 

 the mounted service of the army and who presented certificates from 

 officers in whose commands they had served showing their proficiency 

 in horsemanship. 



It is hardly necessary to point out the desirability of having the 

 breeding service so organized that it will be carried on from year 

 to year by the same or about the same corps of employees, in order 

 that it may have a definite, stable, and continuous policy. 



THE PURCHASE OF STALLIONS. 



Stallions should be purchased by a board of three, composed of an 

 officer of the army, an officer of the Department of Agriculture, and 

 a practical horseman, whose knowledge of breeds, pedigree,- and 

 markets, and whose integrity can be relied upon. 



In selecting the stallions, suitability for the purpose and freedom 

 from unsoundnesses likely to appear in progeny should, of course, be 

 first considered, and the stallions should be old enough to have shown 

 their worth as sires of the class of horses desired. In buying Stand- 

 ardbreds, Saddlers, and Morgans any tendency to pace, rack, mix 

 gaits, paddle in front, or sprawl behind, should disqualify, and only 

 those stallions should be selected which come from families which 

 show none of these tendencies to a marked degree. The presence of 

 such faults in their get would, of course, disqualify them. 



