EDITORIAL. 
225 
AMERICAN VETERINARIANS, BE WATCHFUE. 
The Minister of War of Belgium has offieially inquired of 
Seeretary Wilson, United States Department of Agriculture, 
whether horses suitable for cavalry remounts can be purchased 
in this country, and if so in what numbers, in what localities, 
and the manner in which these horses are bred. This is not 
the first time that such official inquiry has been made by a for¬ 
eign government. During the office-tenure of Secretary Rusk 
the British government asked the same question, the Secretary 
made exhaustive investigations, and reluctantly replied that 
horses such as described by the British War Office could not be 
obtained at that time in sufficient numbers to advise the foreign 
government to establish a purchasing agency in the United 
States. 
The fact that these official inquiries by foreign governments 
are renewed proves that some of them are turning towards the 
United States as the country from which they must ultimately 
draw their supplies. Some of our leading agricultural papers, al¬ 
ways alert in the interests of the American breeder, have taken 
up this subject with a great deal of vigor, and are urging the 
Secretary of Agriculture to do something for our horse-industry, 
which, compared to the interest paid to other domestic animals, 
has been sadly neglected by official advice and guidance. Yet 
the demands made by some of these papers are anything but 
practical, and would utterly fail in the attempted result. The 
Horseman suggests that the United States War Office should 
send types of United States cavalry-horses in charge of officers 
to the agricultural fairs to practically demonstrate to the farmer- 
breeder how a cavalry horse really looks. To this we must re¬ 
ply that the United States cavalry has no fixed type of saddle 
horse, the remounts being gathered by contractors and purchased 
by agents of questionable ability. Thus it happens that the 
United States cavalry-horse is about as different in conformation, 
endurance and intelligence as are their riders in language and 
appearance. A better advice comes from the Breeders Gazette. 
This paper suggests that Secretary Wilson should send abroad 
