HORSES 



E VIE WING briefly the horse industry in 

 Montana takes us back to the days of the 

 open range and the importation of breed- 

 ing stock from the old famous Spanish 

 horses of the Southwest. The horses bred 

 to serve the needs of the cattle industry 

 were, therefore, of good ancestry and under 

 Montana conditions developed a high qual- 

 ity of spirit and stamina. 



The Boer war, however, marked the 

 beginning of the industry of horse breed- 

 ing and developed Miles City as one of the 

 World's largest horse markets to which 

 came buyers from all nations of the world. 

 With the demand for horses during the 

 World war, the industry expanded greatly 

 with the 1912 horse population more than doubling by 1919 when a total of 

 720,000 head were enumerated by the United States census. 



After the World war the market for horses practically ceased and num- 

 bers have rapidly declined to a total of 564,000 head on January 1, 1927. Mean- 

 while there has been an accumulation of unowned horses on many of the open 

 ranges of the state, that has given rise to the slaughter and shipment of these 

 animals to eastern canning factories, after they had been declared a nuisance 

 by the stockmen. 



No definite statistics are available as to the i)ercentage of the state's an- 

 nual shipments that ultimately reach the canning factory, although some idea 

 of the size of this item is afforded by the shipment to Butte during 1926 of 

 7,677 head, the great bulk of which were for the horse abbatoir. 



Exclusive of this item 56,493 head were shipped to points outside the state 

 in 1926 and a total of 54,272 were shipped in 1925. 



Montana still has a surplus of serviceable horses, exclusive of the unowned 

 range horses. 



At present there is no incentive for breeding other than the ijeplacement 

 of work stock. 



MULES 



The general tendency of numbers of mules has been upwards although the 

 state total is very small and mules have as yet found but very little place on 

 Montana farms. The January 1, 1927, number of mules and mule colts was 

 placed at 11,000 head compared with 9,000 head enumerated by the census of 

 1920. 



SWINE 



Raising hogs in Montana has been mainly a side line, but the industry has 

 been on the upgrade during the past twenty years which have witnessed two 

 peaks in production, one from 1915 to 1917 when a total of 270,000 head were 

 inventoried in January, 1916, and the other from 1923 to 1925 when the Jan- 

 uary inventory reached 292,000 head in 1924. 



The unfavorable corn crops of 1924, 1925 and 1926 have undoubtedly op- 

 erated to curtail the last expansion period and the dry seasons of 1917, 1918 

 and 1919 were very likely the biggest factor in the reaction from the first big 

 expansion movement. 



Growing population in the Northwest and the Pacific coast markets have 

 been a factor in Montana's hog production, combined with the development of 

 corn acreage in the state during the past ten years, when from about 50,000 

 acres, in 1914, corn acreage developed to 420,000 acres in 1924. 



Note: For Horse and Swine numbers 1870 to 1927, see page 46. 



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