72 FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN HORSES. 



While France is one of the greatest horse-producing countries in 

 the world, she does not raise all the horses she needs. The Govern- 

 ment has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for breeding stal- 

 lions and still continues to keep up her breeding stables. Besides this 

 she requires every stallion used as a sire to be approved by the Gov- 

 ernment commission and offers prizes to the best horses. Under this 

 wise arrangement we find the breeding horses of France are divided 

 into four classes : (1) Those belonging to the Government; (2) those 

 belonging to private individuals which receive premiums from the 

 Government on account of their breeding qualities; (3) those which 

 are approved and permitted to be used for breeding purposes, but 

 which receive no premiums ; (4) those that are not approved and not 

 permitted to be used for breeding purposes. 



I have before me the annual report of "Le Directeur des Haras," 

 of France, and while I can not give all the statistics relative to the 

 importation and exportation of horses, it is interesting from our point 

 of view to note how many more horses this country imports than she 

 exports. 



The following is the number of horses imported and exported by 

 France for the six years from 1891 to 1896 : 



The above figures, which are official, show that up to 1895 France 

 exported more horses than she imported, but in 1895 and 1896 she 

 imported many thousands more than she exported. I am not able to 

 learn what the values of the horse imports and exports of France were 

 for each year mentioned. 



The Government duty on horses from other countries to France is 

 30 francs, or about $6, per head. 



IN BELGIUM. 



Here we have a country in which different conditions exist from 

 those found in France or England, as it produces nothing but draft 

 horses. The entire Kingdom of Belgium comprises but 11,000 square 

 miles, yet she is one of the great horse-producing nations of the 

 world. From Flanders we trace the earliest history of the draft 

 horse, and, following their customs of early times, the people of Bel- 

 gium continue to breed no horses except the draft, and that of a par- 

 ticular type peculiar to their own country. Hence we find a nation 

 with 5,000 cavalry and 1,200 artillery horses that does not produce 

 any used for the former purpose. 



