122 27TH REPORT, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



THE PRESENT HORSE-BREEDING WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE AND ARMY HORSE BREEDING. 



Shortly after the presentation of the army horse-breeding plan to 

 Congress, Mr. August Belmont, of New York, offered the Govern- 

 ment the use of two of his best-known Thoroughbred stallions, Henry 

 of Navarre and Octagon, to be used to encourage the breeding of 

 army remounts. These horses stood during the season of 1911 at 

 Front Royal, Va., and were available for public service on the terms 

 outlined in the Government's plan. About 50 mares were bred, and 

 options were taken on the colts at $150 each at 3 years of age. The 

 agreements were so drawn that the Government would waive its 

 option on horses promising to mature over 16 hands. Half-breds over 

 16 hands in Virginia furnish the most of the high-class hunters from 

 that section, and a concession on that point was deemed desirable. 



Mares bred were required to be straight-gaited trotters without 

 faulty conformation, such as curby hocks, and free from the following 

 hereditary unsoundnesses : * Bone spavin, ringbone, sidebone, heaves, 

 stringhalt, roaring, periodic ophthalmia, lameness of any kind, and 

 blindness, partial or complete. 



The experience of the department in this case has demonstrated 

 that the Army horse-breeding plan is practical. Mare owners will- 

 ingly enter into the agreement when they realize that it is one of 

 mutual advantage. No difficulty whatever was experienced, and a 

 much larger number of mares would have been bred had the horses 

 reached Virginia somewhat earlier and had Octagon not had a seriouS 

 attack of distemper shortly after his arrival. 



The expenses of this trial have been slight, but such as have been 

 incurred have been paid from, the appropriation for cooperative 

 experiments in animal feeding and breeding, in the act of Congress 

 making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture, which 

 provides authority for such experiments. It is really only an experi- 

 ment, but so far as it has gone it is satisfactory. It should now be 

 followed with a general introduction of the breeding plan. 



The work in carriage-horse breeding in cooperation with the Colo- 

 rado Experiment Station may have some bearing on the work of 

 breeding Army horses, as the stallions bred in that project should 

 make useful sires of artillery remounts ; and the Morgan Horse Farm 

 may produce some of the stallions needed for the New England dis- 

 trict of the Army horse-breeding project. However, it should be 

 specifically stated that neither project was outlined with the Army 

 demand in view. The Army horse project, if provided for by Congress, 



list was compiled several years ago by the Bureau of Animal Industry for 

 another purpose, after consultation with members of the American Veterinary Medical 

 Association and successful horsemen in various parts of the country. A Morgan stallion 

 loaned by the bureau to the Massachusetts Agricultural College stood during the season 

 of 1911 on similar terms, with satisfactory results. 



