48 FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN HORSES. 



such conditions as reduce to a minimum the demoralizing influences 

 of confinement on shipboard. 



ENGLISH OPINIONS. 



I have not thought it necessary to append all the interviews I have 

 had. I submit only those which most clearly support the general 

 trend of all English criticism while embodying succinctly the opinion 

 of English experts. 



ARMY HORSES. 



Maj. Gen. C. A. Gore, inspector-general of remounts, said: 



I buy about 2,000 remounts yearly. Between 4 and 5 per cent of these horses 

 are Canadian or American. We do not distinguish between the two in our rec- 

 ords, but the majority of such purchases are Canadian. The Canadian is the 

 better horse for army purposes. The principal fault I have to find with the 

 American horse from my standpoint is his shape. He is too long in the body; his 

 tail grows too low down on his body; it should be nearer his back. The horse is 

 thickest through at the hips; he should be thickest through at the buttocks. His 

 hocks, as they should not, curl in, and his legs are too thin. He is, from an army 

 standpoint, "gawky " looking.' He is ragged, though docile tempered and better 

 trained than Irish or Hungarian horses. He seems to deteriorate on the voyage 

 over; anyway he is little good until he has been here a year. Even then he does 

 not furnish well — never gets his ribs cut round. Further, he does not last well 

 in the service. We have some in the artillery, none in our cavalry. 



I have been buying a few every year for some years, though not so many since 

 1895, as the investment was not a good one. Canadian horses are hardier, better 

 able to go without forage when doing severe picket duty than American horses. 

 By far the best of the American horses we get come from Kentucky, where, I 

 believe, they are bred in a limestone country. I believe with the Irish breeders 

 that a horse has little chance of being a good horse that is not bred on a limestone 

 soil, for he will be deficient in bone. 



We have no prejudice against American horses. We buy anywhere, the bulk 

 of all our horses coming from Ireland. For service in South Africa we bought in 

 South America; for the Egyptian campaign we bought horses in Hungary. We 

 shall be glad to purchase American horses if the breeders will send in the proper 

 animals — a short, low horse, thickset, strong flanks, good high tail, shoulders not 

 so necessary as buttocks, ribs rounded out so as to furnish well, and better-shaped 

 legs — not so thin and straight, not incurving. Horses with these characteristics 

 and with more stamina, if sent here, would find a ready market for army purposes. 



DRAFT HORSES. 



Mr. Daniel Duff, general manager of the London Road Car Com- 

 pany, Limited, who buys all the horses used by his company, said : 



We purchase about 1,000 horses a year, almost exclusively American or Cana- 

 dian. We are obliged to depend on America for our supply, as we can not any 

 longer get English, Scotch, or Irish horses in sufficient numbers at a possible 

 price. We find American horses get into their leather quicker than Irish or 

 Scotch, and are better bred and tempered. 



We began buying about five years ago and have much improved our stud by so 

 doing; but strangely enough — whether owing to the climate or lack of stamina 

 in the breed I am unable to say — we never before reached so poor an average life 

 for our horses as during the first sis months of this year, namely, three years and 



