VI THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



it is a question not only of increasing, but even of 

 preserving, this value, for new agencies are com- 

 ing into competition with horses for many pur- 

 poses and are being substituted for horses in 

 many others. The automobiles and the electric 

 tramways are not merely passing fads. They 

 have come to stay until substituted by something 

 else which has not yet swum into our ken. The 

 common horses will soon be obsolete except on 

 our farms, and even on the farms they ought to be 

 given up, for, notwithstanding all the great 

 breeding establishments in the various states, by 

 far the greater number of the horses are bred on 

 the farms at present. That should always be the 

 case; but it may not be so when the time comes 

 that is rapidly approaching and a common horse 

 will have next to no value at all. Farmers more 

 than others need to realize that only such horses 

 should be bred that will have a value for other 

 than strictly farm work, for a farmer should be 

 able to sell his surplus stock with a fair profit. If 

 farmers have not the foresight to anticipate the 

 inevitable, then they will have to accept the loss 

 that will surely ensue. 



