INTRODUCTION V 



care and intelligence, is not trustworthy. We do 

 not know with certainty how any of the great 

 types has been produced, for the beginnings of all 

 of them are covered up by fictions, based on tra- 

 ditions not recorded, but handed down from gen- 

 eration to generation, or on fictions that have 

 been manufactured with ingenious mendacity. 

 All this is a pity, but there is no help for it now. 

 What we can do is to tell what is true, show what 

 has been demonstrated by known achievements 

 and go on working in the material that we have at 

 hand, so that we may assist in increasing the great 

 property value that this country has in its horses. 

 That property value is immense. In the begin- 

 ning of 1905, the Agricultural Department esti- 

 mated that the (taxable) value of the horses in the 

 United States was $1,200,310,020, and of mules 

 $251,840,378, or a total of $1,452,150,398. This 

 is only about eight per cent less than the aggre- 

 gate value of the cows, beef cattle, sheep and 

 hogs in the whole country. Merely, therefore, 

 from an economic standpoint this question of 

 preserving and increasing the value of horses is 

 one of prime importance. At this particular time 



