44 WASTAGE OF ANIMALS IN WAR. 



In the United States, for instance, our purchases were 20 light 

 draughts to one of other classes combined. The world's supply 

 of suitable stock is not inexhaustible. How demands were met 

 is surprising ; and rightly, our Eemount Services at Home and 

 Abroad have reason .to be proud of their achievements in the 

 difficult task that was put upon thfem. Shakespeare, through 

 the mouth of one of his characters, enjoins on us to put no trust 

 in a horse's health, and when we consider the vast number of 

 animals that have been collected, purchased, moved by rail and 

 sea, distributed at, reinforcements to replace casualties (readers 

 please think big and in hundreds of thousands), and their much 

 greater proneness to disease than any human race, the wonder 

 is that wastage has not been greater, and supply over so long 

 a period impossible — in other words, that absolute exhaustion of 

 resoures was not reached. 



Very much less fortunate, and to her great regret as evidenced 

 in Ludendorff's Memoirs, was our principal enemy, Germany. 

 Her resources were exhausted ; captured documents and orders 

 revealed a burning desire to capture some of the beautiful 

 horses of th§ English for her Transport. She was not enriched 

 by animals of ours falling into her hands, which is a glorious 

 page in the history of our animals in the war. And the 

 imposing sight of the grand German Army in retreat with 

 mixed teams of oxen and horses was a crown to her debacle. 

 The majority of German animals taken by us were evacuated 

 to our Lines of Communication and were sold for sausage meat. 



Germany, though credited with over 4,000,000 horses in 

 normal times, of which nearly 3,000,000 ~were in Prussia, was 

 an importing country. She bought on an average 21,000 

 annually from Belgium, taking, it was said, the best of the 

 Ardennes horses. She was also credited with taking 16,000 

 annually from Denmark, many of them for light draught work. 

 Altogether her annual import returns showed a little over 

 100,000. The best material was almost entirely appropriated 

 to supply the demands of the military authorities, the remainder 

 being doubtful for military purposes. 



Austria-Hungary was fairly well stocked with horses, but 

 Hungary was essentially a light horse country, and Austria 

 proper never afforded much of a field for remount operations. 



