EARLY INTEREST IN HORSES O 



our new, and, as yet, only partly developed country can 

 be easily accounted for. 



It is not strange, therefore, that the people of the 

 United States, both urban and suburban, have always 

 taken an intelligent interest in the horse. They have 

 not only taken pains to improve the animals of mixed 

 blood by selection and by improving their food and 

 environment, but, even as early as the colonial period, 

 horses of superior qualities, horses of oriental lineage 

 and of great beauty, were imported at large cost. After 

 the Revolution, as soon as the country began to recover 

 from its long struggle for independence, the importa- 

 tion of horses was resumed. 



The true draft -horse attracted comparatively little 

 attention in America until permanent settlements had 

 spread over the middle west. When the railways reached 

 the western prairies, these vast fertile areas became 

 valuable, since rapid and cheap communication with the 

 east furnished facilities for reaching a steady and profit- 

 able market along these railways. Cities were soon 

 built where, but a few years before, the bison roamed 

 undisturbed except by his compeer, the American 

 Indian. The opening of the prairies to the peaceful 

 pursuits of agriculture, and the growing cities, created 

 a demand for larger numbers of heavier horses than 

 had hitherto been required. It will readily be seen how 

 necessary the horse has been to the development of 

 American agriculture, when it is stated that in 1890 

 the total number of horses on farms and ranges, not 

 including 7,461 on Indian reservations and 2,314,785 

 mules and asses which take the place of horses as 



