82 FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN HORSES. 



erable number of horses for her cavalry each year, and we should at 

 the present time be furnishing her what she needs, as we can furnish 

 her a better horse than she is now buying elsewhere. 



SUMMARY. 



It must be apparent from the above facts that few nations produce 

 horses that are at all suitable for general use, and that none are at 

 the present time raising all of the kinds or the number they require 

 for their own uses. It must also be remembered that this condition 

 can not change quickly, as but few countries are so situated geograph- 

 ically as to render them capable of producing good horses, however 

 hard they may try. The natural environments have much to do with 

 the development of horses, and if these are not right all efforts must 

 prove futile. 



The figures I have given, showing the present imports and exports 

 of the greatest horse-producing nations of the world, and the prices 

 certain kinds of horses bring in the different countries alluded to, 

 afford the best possible criterion of the supply and demand. 



I have not only tried to give an accurate idea of what horses are 

 worth in the different countries, but have tried as well to show what 

 each is producing, and about what is the cost of production. This 

 decides the further question whether the present demand is tem- 

 porary, and whether or not the countries which are now taking our 

 horses will be able soon to produce them cheaper than we can supply 

 them. 



These questions are all important, and if correctly answered will 

 shed much light upon the horse-exporting industry of the future. 



There is little doubt that Prance and Germany will continue to raise 

 the great majority if not all of their cavalry horses, and Ireland may 

 continue to supply the few that England needs ; but the reader has 

 not failed to notice the many places pointed out where our horses can 

 be supplied for civil uses at much greater profit than when sold to the 

 armies of these countries. 



I have given the approximate cost of raising horses in several 

 countries, and it will be seen that there is no country that can produce 

 the same kind of a horse as cheaply as the United States. In such 

 cases as that of Ireland furnishing the cab horses of England and 

 the cavalry horses of Great Britain, or Prussia supplying the cavalry 

 horses and cab horses of Germany, at a price below which we could 

 furnish them, they have left us a better and more profitable market 

 for higher-priced horses, which we can raise, and we can therefore well 

 afford to lose the cheaper markets. 



With the exception of Belgium, every country I have mentioned 

 imports more horses than it exports. This may seem strange, in view 

 of the fact that I have spoken of the greatest horse-producing coun- 

 tries of the world, but the fact remains. 



