418 REPOET OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTUKE. 



prices aud the proiit of breeding. Already there is a small export trade 

 iti horses. The movement may be slow lor sometime, and, like that of 

 most products of agriculture, should ouly be depended on as an outlet 

 for a small surplus ; a regulator but never a controller of values. 



Almost every State makes some increase. Most of the Atlantic States 

 show an increase of about 1 per cent., as well as Louisiana, Texas, and Illi- 

 nois; New York and Virginia, 2; and about the same rate in Arkansas, 

 Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, aud Wisconsin. The States 

 of the Missouri Valley, with rapid advances in settlement and popula- 

 tion, show a much larger rate; Nebraska, an increase of 10 per cent., 

 and Dakota of 15. There is also a considerable advance on the Pacilic 

 coast. There has been a large increase in the Rocky Mountain region, 

 as horse ranches are becoming numerous and profitable. The total in- 

 crease in the United States, as estimated, aggregates 513,u85. 



The number of mules has not advanced faster than population, but 

 the increase is distributed with some irregularity, being greatest in the 

 States and Territories between the Mississippi and the llocky Mount- 

 ains. The aggregate increase is i)laced at 80,024. 



The number of cows has decreased somewhat in Vermont, New York, 

 and Ohio, on account of low prices of dairy products. Elsewhere there 

 has generally been advance with increase of population, while there has 

 been increase more or less marked iu the dairy States of the West. 

 The West has recently had advantage of the East in favorable long dis- 

 tance rates of transportation, in refrigenitor cars, for the products of 

 their numerous creameries, by which the cost of marketing fresh butter 

 has been less from Western Iowa than from Northern Ohio and West- 

 ern New York. In the South the increase is general, thuugh small. In 

 the aggregate a showing of 330,600 more cows than last year is made. 



A larger rate of increase has prevailed in other cattle, largely in the 

 distant Western States and iu the Eocky Mountain region. The win- 

 ter of 1884-'85 was comparatively favorable for the ranch cattle and lor 

 the unhoused animals of the farm region, so that numbers have in- 

 creased in those regions. Though prices have been lower, in sympathy 

 with the general depression in values, there is an abiding faith in the 

 future of stock-breeding in this country. The wide range of public 

 land, the broad prairies of the farms, mustbe cropped, and when prices 

 of farm labor are high in comparison with products, stock-farming is 

 ever i)referable to arable culture and the results more profitable. The 

 narrowing of the margin of profit in meat-making in recent years is 

 teaching a necessary and valuable lesson that waste must be avoided, 

 animals kept constantly growing, and meat produced iu shorter time. 

 There is real progress, slow perhaps, iu the economy of meat production, 

 an improvement forced by necessity, as is the greater part of all agri- 

 cultural progress. 



Coming to sheep, it must be observed that sheep husbandry is in a 

 period of dcei)er depression than any other animal industry of the 

 country. The results of this inquiry manifest a loss of about 2,000,000 

 sheep. The industry has been peculiarly susceptible to adverse influ- 

 ences, feeling keenly any depression of prices of wool. Values of both 

 wool and mutton have been low, and flocks have been slaughtered in 

 the farm States, or sent West to cheaper pasturage. It is estimated 

 that Pennsylvania has lost in one year a fifth of her flocks, or nearly 

 300,000 sheep. The loss is the more serious, as it falls mainly on a 

 region peculiarly adapted by its grasses and irregularities of surface for 

 sheep farming, which has long stood iu the forefront of improvement in 

 wool growing. The decline is almost universal east of the Mississippi. 



