108 27TH REPORT, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



This table shows the figures for purebreds only. One can usually 

 depend on a purebred stallion reproducing his type pretty accurately ; 

 no one knows what a grade stallion is likely to " throw." 



The table shows emphatically that the draft horse is easily the 

 more popular horse in nearly every State where figures are available, 

 the percentage ranging from 24.03 in New York to 88.51 in South 

 Dakota. Even in Pennsylvania, where conditions are not as a rule 

 favorable to draft horses on account of the hilly and mountainous 

 character of much of the State, over 50 per cent of the purebred stal- 

 lions are drafters. In Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, 

 Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Utah, where 

 the light horse was formerly the preferred type, and from which sec- 

 tion most of the remounts for the Arm}' once came, the percentage of 

 purebred stallions of the light type is as low as 11.39, and does not 

 exceed 39 per cent. At the time of the Civil War there probably was 

 not one draft stallion in all this territory, and this remarkable change 

 has therefore been the result of less than 45 years growth. One can 

 only wonder what the next 45 years will bring forth. 



MILITARY HORSES IX THE UNITED STATES TO-DAY. 



The argument is frequently advanced that if the War Department 

 were to pay sufficient prices for horses it could easily obtain the 

 number needed for the use of the Army. This argument is not ex- 

 actly apropos. Under the remount system now in vogue, whereby the 

 Government buys young horses direct from farmers, the supply 

 necessary for the Regular Army on its present peace footing is being 

 obtained in a fairly satisfactory manner, as the photographs of re- 

 mounts accompanying this article will show. (See PI. IV.) How- 

 ever, the Government is concerned in the encouragement of a supply 

 of horses which will be profitable to those who raise them and which 

 may be drawn upon in case of war. The well-worn dictum that 

 preparedness is half the measure of success in a conflict applies no 

 more to the subject of rifles, guns, and fortifications than to that 

 of horses for the mounted service. A supply of horses sufficient to 

 equip a modern army can not be picked up in a few weeks where 

 it does not exist, and suitable horses can not be bred and raised to a 

 usable age in much less than 6 years. We have already observed 

 the sweep of the draft horse over the United States a perfectly 

 normal matter, based on sound economic laws. But an army can 

 not be mounted on drafters if it is to use its cavalry and field artillery 

 to good advantage. 



POLICE REMOUNTS. 



The success of the police departments of our large cities in provid- 

 ing their mounted men with good horses is always brought up to 



