Live Stock Breeders' Association. 241 



part of individual breeders, breeders' associations and the Federal 

 Government to study the possibilities of developing a trade in 

 breeding stock with foreign lands. In the palmy days of the Ameri- 

 can Merino sheep, the demand from Australia and other countries 

 was a very large factor in the trade, and even now, the purchaser of 

 rams of the various Merino types must meet the competition of 

 foreign buyers. Whether this trade can be built up again on a 

 considerable scale and whether it can be developed for all classes 

 of American live stock, is a question in which there is a growing 

 interest. 



At the present time, the export trade in breeding animals is 

 very small. Just how many animals are sent abroad annually for 

 breeding is not known, because customs officers are not required 

 to report such export movements, and breeders' associations, almost 

 without exception, do not keep such records. We can gain a fairly 

 definite idea, however, from the figures for the exports of animals 

 to countries in South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, as it is 

 known that with the possible exception of countries on the north 

 of South America, exports of animals to these sections of the world 

 for other purposes than breeding are insignificant. Considerable 

 numbers of breeding animals go each year to Canada, Mexico, the 

 Central American states, and Cuba, but very much larger numbers 

 are sold to these countries for other purposes. The following table 

 is, therefore, made up from the reports of trade and navigation 

 of the Department of Commerce and Labor, showing for the ten 

 fiscal years, from 1897 to 1906, the total exports of cattle, hogs, 

 horses and sheep to the countries above mentioned. These figures 

 show, approximately, our foreign trade in pure-bred live stock. A 

 detailed table showing the exports to all countries for the period 

 named appears at the close of this article. 



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