48 SANTA ANITA RANCHO 



THE OUTLOOK FOR DRAFT HORSE BREEDING 



THE haze of uncertainty which has obscured horse breeding is steadily 

 clearing away. Breeders are in better position today to judge fairly of 

 the future than they have been at any time in the last decade. Factors 

 whose precise influence was problematical — automobiles, motor trucks 

 and tractors — have found their places, and their limitations are now fairly 

 understood. The greatest war in the history of the world has taught us anew 

 the indispensability of horses and mules in warfare. Nations concerned with 

 adequate defense measures must not neglect possessing plenty of horses for 

 emergencies. 



Whatever may have been the ideas of army men prior to the war, it took 

 but a very brief time to convince them that however valuable motor trucks 

 and tractors may be in transport work, horses alone could be rehed upon to 

 put men and artillery in positions where needed, when needed. 



Russia's surplus, most of which was too small, was shut off from other 

 nations. South America's supply was limited, and nearly all the horses were 

 too small in size. The United States was the only nation with an available 

 surplus of the right kind of horses; and there can be no more conclusive evidence 

 of the indispensability of horses than is visible in cold figures : From September 

 1, 1914, to February 1, 1916, 542,602 head of horses, valued at $114,999,223.00, 

 and 139,929 mules, valued at $26,803,506.00, were actually exported from the 

 United States. This exceeds in dollars and cents our total exports of horses 

 and mules for the sixteen years preceding the outbreak of the present war, and 

 is unanswerable evidence of the need of horses and mules, despite the admitted 

 value of trucks and tractors in transport work. 



The competition of tractors with horses on the farm has served a good 

 purpose. It has caused men to figure team costs, and the cost per hour of horse 

 labor. It has made farmers study the relationship between horses kept, and 

 work to be done; has forced upon every careful farmer the desirability of using 

 heavier, stronger, more durable horses, capable of doing more work at less cost. 

 It has, by exposing the fact that on most farms horses average only three or 

 four hours work daily, led men to so rearrange their cropping systems and live 



