UNIVERSITY Of 1LUN0« 
AGRICULTURE LIBRARY 
The 
Outlook 
for 
Draft-Horse 
Breeding 
The haze of uncertainty which has obscured 
horse breeding is steadily clearing away. Breeders 
are in a better position to-day to judge fairly of the 
future than they have been at any time in the last 
decade. If actors whose precise influence was problem- 
atical — automobiles, motor trucks, and tractors 
— have found their places, and their limitations are 
now fairly well understood. The greatest war in 
the history of the world had 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. 
Horse breeding is a world problem and must be 
considered as such, for horses are produced and used 
all over the world. 
The latest available world census figures are given 
by the United States Department of Agriculture in 
its annual report for 1914. These, while admittedly 
incomplete for some of the less important countries, 
are believed to be fairly accurate as to the number 
of horses existing in all leading nations. According 
to this data, the world had in 1914 slightly more 
than one hundred and five million horses. Russia 
(including both European and Asiatic) had a little 
over thirty-five millions, and the United States 
about twenty-four millions. South America pos- 
sessed a trifle over ten million head. Central 
America and the West Indies are credited with 
2,400,000, 859,000 of which were in Mexico. Can- 
ada is credited with 2,058,000; the British Isles with 
2,233,000; Australia, South Africa and New Zea- 
land combined, with 3,628,000; France with 3,231,- 
000 and Italy with 956,000 head. Germany had 
4,523,000 and Austria-Hungary 4,374,000 horses 
prior to the outbreak of the war. Figures given 
by the London Live Stock Journal, considered 
an authority, show that the total number of horses 
in France was reduced from 3,231,000 to 2,227,000 
head within the first eleven months of the war, or a 
decrease of 31 per cent between August 1, 1914, and 
July 1, 1915. The reduction in number of horses 
in the other nations engaged is probably as great. 
Through the courtesy of Jacob DeGeus of Mich- 
igan, whose brother is one of the leading horsemen in 
Holland, the following, from a letter written Jan- 
uary 15, 1915, is taken: 
"The Germans have been buying all the horses 
they can possibly obtain in Holland. Good geldings 
of common work stock only 18 months old are bring- 
ing from $260 to S300 per head." 
The following extract (also furnished by Mr. 
DeGeus) from DeVeldbode, one of the leading agri- 
cultural newspapers in Holland, issue of February 
5, 1916, is direct testimony: 
"Prices on horses are real war prices. The 
average prices paid for fair work horses, not too old, 
is never less than 2000 marks ($475) per head. 
There are not horses enough to do the work of farm- 
ers, and it seems as though we were turning back to 
the days when oxen were most used for farm draft 
power." 
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 relied 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 na- 
tion 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 
the cold figures re exports. *From September 1, 1914, 
to February 1, 1916, 542,602 head of horses, valued 
at $114,999,223, and 139,929 mules, valued at 
$26,803,506, 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 for horses and 
mules, despite the admitted value of trucks and 
tractors in transport work. 
In the United States, where peace prevails (to 
the time this was written) and where motor driven 
vehicles are more generally used than anywhere else, 
it is now possible to estimate quite accurately their 
influence on horse breeding. 
The pleasure car, vastly reduced in cost, and 
supplemented by rapid improvement in roads, has 
virtually eliminated the driving and coach horse. 
* From Department of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, U. S. A. 
