904 
THE HORSES OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY. 
Prussian Government for the encouragement of a breed of 
horses adapted to military purposes. 
Though, since the late war, great changes have occurred in 
the distribution, and to some extent in the organisation of the 
German army, yet there can be no doubt that a system of 
remounting which has answered so well will not only be 
retained, but still further perfected. Indeed, the improve¬ 
ment of their breeds of horses is an object of constant solicitude 
by that wise and far-seeing government. Since the war it 
may be interesting to note, before commencing with the 
subject of the paper, that the establishment of the German 
army has been fixed at 693 veterinary surgeons, and 94,742 
horses; of the latter 69,161 belong to the cavalry, 15,163 
to the artillery, and 2,274 to the military train. 
The benefits supposed to attend the Prussian system of 
remounting, by the most competent authorities who have 
attended to its working, are :—1. That it supplies the army 
with good, serviceable horses. 2. That the outlay thus in¬ 
curred is not greater than would be hecessary if the horses 
were imported from abroad, and that the money so laid out 
is spent at home. 3. That the prices given for the remounts 
are less than their actual value. 4. That the encourage¬ 
ment thus given to horse-breeding is of considerable im¬ 
portance in a national and commercial point of view. 5. 
That the army is rendered independent of foreign markets 
for the supply of its horses. It is further added, that the 
working of the system has also been attended by an enormous 
increase of numbers in this description of stock in Prussia, and 
by a marked improvement in the quality of the horses em¬ 
ployed for agricultural purposes. 
The army remounts, of which the number annually required 
was about 5,000 during the latter years of the twenty-five 
years’ period, 1845—69, were purchased in the open market 
by five Standing Remount Committees, to each of which a 
special district was assigned. Two (one of them being an 
auxiliary committee) took East Prussia and Lithuania; one was 
for the country between the Vistula and the Oder ; another 
for the country between the Oder and the Elbe, Schleswig- 
Holstein included ; and the last, for the districts between the 
Elbe and the Rhine. 
There are very marked differences in the horse-producing 
resources of the various districts, and also in the quality 
and description of animals they supply. Into these matters we 
shall not enter, but proceed to notice certain attributes 
which necessarily are common to the whole body of army 
horses. 
