TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 461 



kind. One Ohio farmer and feeder sold ten geldings, four of them three 

 years old, for an even $4,000 on September 27. These were high-grade 

 Percheron geldings, most of them bred in Iowa and Illinois. The most 

 symmetrical of the lot was an Ohio-bred colt, and a man who claimed 

 to know his breeding well stated that he was the result of Seven top 

 crosses of pure-bred Percheron sires. These geldings were all well bred, 

 showing good blood in their size, symmetry and excellent quality. The 

 New York firm that bought them purchases this kind as fast as they 

 can be found. 



The good prices prevailing for commercial draft stock is attributable 

 to the increasing demand and the scarcity of heavy horses. Increasing 

 population, rapidly expanding commerce, and a swiftly growing appre- 

 ciation of the necessity for using draft horses on high-priced farm lands, 

 furnish substantial evidence regarding the need for drafters. The auto- 

 truck and steam plow, proclaimed as sure to supercede the horse, have 

 had no appreciable effect. There is no more reason to believe that they 

 will materially curtail the demand than there was to suppose that rail- 

 roads would eliminate horses. 



Director Durand of the Un'ted States Census Bureau has recently ad- 

 vised the public that the 1910 census shows the horses and colts found 

 on the United States farms and ranges to number 19,731,060. Allowing 

 7 feet per animal, this means a continuous chain more than 25.000 miles 

 long, enough horses and colts to form a belt more than around the world. 

 This is only the preliminary report and does not include any horses 

 or colts in towns or cities. When these are counted in the United States 

 will have enough horses and colts to reach much farther, and besides 

 there are on the same basis 5, .500 miles of mules and mule colts which 

 the 1910 census uncovered. The total value of the horses and colts is 

 $2,076,297,828, and when we include the mule, indispersable adjunct of 

 armies, the g-and valuation is $2,598,699,908; enough to pay the present 

 national debt twice over, with a half b-llion to spare. In fact, the value 

 of the horses and colts on farms and ranges is more than double the 

 combined capital of all the national banks in the United States The 

 total value of the horses, mules and colts is greater than the combined 

 value of all the other live stock, poultry and bees on American farms. 



Horsemen may well feel proud of the rank their industry takes among 

 those of the nation, but it must humiliate them to realize that draft 

 horses, the highest-priced and most useful, constitute not more than one- 

 third of the grand total. That the proportion of draft horses is so low 

 will surprise many, but it is the conservative judgment of the most 

 experienced and best informed men engaged in handling commercial 

 horses that not more than 25 per cent of all the horses reaching the 

 Chicago market weigh over 1.550 pounds. This includes all up to this 

 weight, good or bad, and not more than 5 per cent of all the Chicago of- 

 ferings are real draft horses, sound, of full age, and over 1,700 pounds in 

 weight. Market offerings reflect the conditions in the breeding districts, 

 and it Is exceedingly doubtful whether thirty out of every hundred 

 horses in the United States will weigh 1,550 pounds at maturity. At that, 



