298 
EDITORIAL. 
this enterprise was started the owners of the vast herds of senii-wild 
horses which roamed the Oregon plains hailed it as a sort of a “ last 
ditch” proposition, and now that even this opportunity for ridding them¬ 
selves of the animals has vanished, the}' know not which way to turn, 
and the horses have become so worthless that they can be purchased in 
anv number wanted at from 50 cents to $2 per head, and they are re¬ 
garded in much the same light as wild animals which deprive valuable 
sheep and cattle of rich grazing needed by them. However, crowding 
him off the good grazing grounds of the earth and making him a target 
for the rifles of the sheep herder and the cowboy, and like his fellow 
nomad, the American Indian, the diseases of civilization are also help¬ 
ing to decimate his ranks, kast fall the Deputy State Stock Inspector 
in Umatilla County killed several hundred horses affected with mange, 
on the Umatilla Indian reservation. It was thought that the disease 
was pretty well stamped out, but within the past few weeks a large 
number of afflicted horses have come doAvn from the mountains and the 
disease is again spreading on the reservation, necessitating another 
wholesale killing. 
Wanted—Large Numbers of Draft-Horses. —A dealer in Maine 
advertises that he has contracted for the purchase of one thousand head 
of sound, good, useful western workers, and will import them into that 
State at the rate of four carloads each week, two loads each Tuesday and 
two loads each Friday. He says that he will also have on sale at all 
times during the season one hundred head of big, strong horses for the 
lumber and heavy hauling trades. This is a most interesting announce¬ 
ment. Here is just one of maii}^ dealers in horses doing business in Maine. 
He must go westward, as far as Buffalo, at least, and buy 1000 head of 
western horses in order to supply the demands* of the farmers and other 
horse users in the territory in - which he operates. Have the Maine 
breeders not been raising any horses latel}', or what is the matter ? If 
only a few horses were needed in the Pine Tree State it would not be so 
curious, but when it comes to the dealers having to buy their stock 
1000 at a time it looks as though the promised horse famine is closer at 
hand than was expected some time ago. 
Sales of Thoroughbred Yearlings. —This year men seem 
to be willing to pa}^ more for thoroughbred yearlings than they 
have been for seasons past. The Rancho del Paso colts and fillies sold 
very well, the get of the Knglish horse Goldfinch selling to the best ad¬ 
vantage. Mr. Daly invariably pays the biggest prices going at the Hag- 
gin sales of yearlings. When thoroughbred yearlings sell for eight 
thousand dollars, five thousand dollars and so on, it means that times 
have changed. The full brother to Ornament brought over ten thousand 
