20 FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN HORSES. 



bought in this country and shipped to Europe for a sum of money 

 less than the cost of production in those countries; and European 

 producers of the kind of horses usually exported not being able to 

 compete have in many cases gone out of the business. However, as 

 the demand for horses in this country increases and values rise, com- 

 petition by horse raisers in Europe will again be strong, horse breed- 

 ing will again resume its sway in the countries at present affected, 

 and unless ways and means are devised to hold our vantage ground 

 this valuable addition to our agricultural exports will decline. 



At present there is a scarcity of desirable animals, and prices are 

 rising. The susceptibility of an increase of the present value of export 

 business is therefore of vital importance to horse breeders of the 

 United States. 



The larger part of the export trade consists of draft and road horses, 

 the former weighing over 1,600 pounds and being either pure blood or 

 half-breed Clydesdale, Percheron, Shire, or Belgian; and the latter 

 mostly standard-bred trotting stock, weighing from 1,000 to 1,200 

 pounds, and being assigned according to their fitness to coaches, cabs, 

 trams, light wagons, etc. 



Soundness, size, style, and an aptitude for some special work is 

 required of every horse that is expected to fetch more than the price 

 paid for plugs. No longer does the glamor of a great ancestral pedi- 

 gree make a misshaped and unsound horse in demand as a breeder. 

 The blood of Hambletonian, "Wilkes, or Mambrino is as valuable as 

 ever, having lost nothing of its prepotency; but the individual must 

 have merit of its own other than " sired by So-and-So" to make him 

 acceptable to the public. 



An inference. may be readily drawn as to the character of horses 

 desired by each of the countries mentioned below: 



Great Britain.— Ninety per cent of all horses shipped to this coun- 

 try are draft horses, about 7 per cent are high-class coachers, and 3 

 per cent trotting and light carriage horses. 



Germany. — Ninety-five per cent of all the horses shipped to Ham- 

 burg are draft horses weighing 1,500 pounds or upward, the other 5 

 per cent being made up of high-class carriage, running, and trotting 

 horses. Most of the latter are reshipped to Austria. 



France.— About 85 per cent of the horses exported to this country 

 are what are termed cabbers. The other 15 per cent are about equally 

 divided between draft horses and trotters. 



Belgium.— About 2 per cent of those sent to Antwerp are trotting 

 or light buggy horses, 23 per cent street-car horses weighing 1,200 

 pounds, and 75 per cent draft horses weighing 1,600 pounds and 

 upward. 



NUMBER AND VALUE OF HORSES EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES. 



The following tables, furnished by the Section of Foreign Markets, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, give not only the number 



