CHAPTER XXVI. 



"standard bred" horses. 



Do we not export other animals than horses? 



" Yes, certainly, hogs in barrels and butchered 

 bullocks in ice, if you will kindly excuse the blunt- 

 ness of the statement. With all the vast and un- 

 paralleled facilities in this magnificent country for 

 growing live stock — which it is estimated can be 

 done ninety per cent, cheaper here than in any coun- 

 try in Europe — America exports no animals except 

 as they go to be butchered." 



Can this be true, Count? 



"Ah, madam, if you will read the statistics you 

 will see that it is by the continued annual importation 

 of breeding stock from England and Scotland that the 

 cattle in the great West do not deteriorate. Is it to 

 the credit of this great continent, with its vast graz- 

 ing lands, its fertile valleys, its unlimited supply of 

 fresh spring water, its spreading shade trees, its 

 beneficent if changeable climate, that we import, in 

 almost all cases, our thoroughbred animals instead of 

 mating properly, and breeding intelligently, and so 

 creating types of our own?" 



Then it is true that we pay from five to seven mill- 

 ions of dollars annually to France and England 

 alone for the importation of brood-stock? 



132 



