GERMANY. 281 



These horses are used as draft animals for the stable wagons 

 and in the squadron or company fatigue duty. They may also 

 be hired out to other organizations of the garrison. Under 

 certain conditions they may be driven also by officers of the 

 regiment or organization, on payment of a certain charge, 

 which goes into a special fund. 



In case of mobilization the horses necessary to put the army 

 on a war effective are obtained by requisition. 



The number of horses to be added to the peace effective in 

 case of a general mobilization is 380,000. It is expected that 

 these horses will be procured in Germany upon mobilization, 

 as they are now ready and listed for such service. The law 

 of 187o affecting military requisitions, and the regulation of 

 1886, concerning the conscription of horses, indicate in detail 

 the rules to be followed in all that concerns these operations. 

 Concisely they are as follows : A general census of horses is 

 made every ten years by the civil authority. This is followed 

 by a classification made by commissions, each composed of an 

 army officer and one official of the civil administration. Dis- 

 tricts are then assigned to the different army corps, and, in 

 case of mobilization, the corps commanders call for the 

 required number of animals of the desired classes. The horses 

 are inspected by commissions established during time of peace 

 and composed of 3 members each. The work is laid out in 

 such a manner that each commission will not have more than 

 1,200 animals to examine. Upon the civil authority is incum- 

 bent the duty of assembling the horses and of seeing that they 

 are collected at the points wished at the time indicated in the 

 order of mobilization. The horses selected by the commis- 

 sions are taken by the owners to designated points where mili- 

 tary receiving commissions appraise the animals and fix the 

 amounts to be allowed the owners. The horses are then sent 

 to the organizations by men of the recruiting service or men 

 of the landwehr or landsturm, assembled for this purpose in 

 advance at the different receiving points. 



There are in Prussia three government breeding stables, 

 containing stallions and mares. They are the stables of 

 Trakehnen, Beberbeck, and Graditz. Their object is to raise 

 blooded stallions for the purpose of supplying the stallion 

 depots, of which there are 15. The latter send out their stal- 

 lions to the various stallion stations established throughout 

 the empire during the breeding seasons. After the breeding 



