AyiMAL IXDUSTRIES 225 



developed in Xew York and Buffalo, which are the 

 chief centers of exchange. It is stated that one con- 

 cern in Xew York City has handled from 35,000 to 

 40,000 horses annually. That the production of 

 horses has decreased is indicated by the fact that in 

 1890, the year of the largest number of horses, the 

 production was nearly twice that of 1910, while the 

 total number of horses on farms was only 17 per 

 cent greater. 



The distribution of horses follows closely the im- 

 proved land and averages fifteen acres of land in 

 specified crops for each mature horse. The propor- 

 tion varies with the intensity of the farm practices. 

 In all those regions primarily devoted to dairv-ing, 

 there is one horse for each twenty-six to thirty-five 

 acres of improved land. In the counties near large 

 cities, it is one horse for eighteen to twenty-five acres 

 and in Xassau County, largely devoted to market- 

 gardening, there is one horse for each 11.3 acres of 

 improved land, or 5.8 acres of land in specified crops. 



The increase in the number of horses on farms 

 since the census of 1910 is doubtless traceable to the 

 tendency to increase the intensity of farm operations. 



The draft breed of horses in most favor is the 

 Percheron. His clean limbs, intelligent and alert, 

 active movements in many ways adapt him to condi- 

 tions as they exist in the better farming sections of 

 the State. In 1910, an incomplete register of pure- 

 blood stock showed forty-eight breeders of draft 

 horses. They were distributed among 281 owners. 

 The largest number of breeders was in Allegany and 



