Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-27
HORSES IN DEMAND
Buyers From England Are Securing Amer
lean Stock.
Shipments This Year Are Likely to
Amount to 25,OOO-Good Horses
Still Bring Good Prices.

A year ago those farmers--and there were
thousands of them-who had been making
most of their money raising common or
railroad" horses-were about the bfuest
class of men in the United States. Today
they are again in good heart. Then they
were convinced that the industry in which
their capital was invested, and from which
they had won their profits for years, was
doomed; that they must abandon forever
the one business to which they had devoted
their lives and with which they were ia
miliar, and seek other ways to make their
farms productive. Many Of them. indeed,
sold their horses at big sacrifice and closed
out without ceremony. Now they are be-
ginning to go into business again. their
pastures and paddocks are once more being
brought into use. and they are satisfied that
the outlook Is full of promise.
This most desirable change in the status
OF great industry has been brought about
engaged in the horse business know any
thing about It, Its cause, according to Mr.
William f. Doerr. one Of the best-known
horse dealers in the United States has been
the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES tarEily shown,
to be surely the English. of the facts with
regard to the horse market in the United
States.
1T was some time last year." said Mr..
day or two ago. that our friends on the
other side began to send their buyers over
here. They had never done so to any ex-
tent before. Possibly this in some de-
gree because they did not favor American
horses. but chiefly for the excellent reason
that American horses could never before
be bought nearly so cheaply as those of for
e:sn breeding. The irst English agent went
at ms buying, perhaps, with some hesita-
ton. But he soon became confident, for
ne 1oCno not only that the prices at which
ne could buy here were much below the
current prices abroad. but also that the
American horses were harder more en-
during, grade for grade, better looking than
the English animals.
The first shipment of consequence was
sent over rather early last year, and as
s .p as me horses were seen and tested
there rush OF English buyers to the states
began. Ever since then the shipments
have been constantly increasing / do not
believe the traffic has even yet reached its
Heisml; since there are at least hundred
Engllsh buyers now In the land, picking I'D
horses wherever they may. Seven or eight
hundred horses are now being sent over
every week. and 7 should say the total shin
ments OF railroad horses to England this
year are likely TO reach 5000 or more.
Used on Tram Lines,
How dc they use those lQrs1s over tbereo
10 haui tram cars 'Yitb. The English have
not yet adopted electricity on their tran,
hhes 70 any extent Their adoption of
ct cars in the first place was slow. and.
although they are now using them more
freely. they are still behind as to the method
" Hauhhs them Some American horses
are being used for other purposes I SUM-
pose. out not many. The grade of horses
winch we formerly called .railroaders' are
SO much better adapted to tram work than
any other sort that they practically
a snapped up for that purpose
Prices? Well, the American r.;lrood
horses cost, delivered over there from S125
10 MO. rms, of course. includes the com
missions or the English buyers and the
american agents, the TRANSFORMATION cost
TO the seaboard, and the ocean freight No.
prices or railroaders have not gone up on
TINS side. for the reason that there is now
not much demand here
although the breeders Of bors.s h,,oh
gun again IN earnest" continued Mr. Doerr
in his talk, lit will be four Years at Last
before the effect will be much felt on the
market here. In the meantime nrjces vii,
go up-they will be higher in nv oninion
than they ever have been | do NOT noean
that railroad horses will bring much high
er prices for reasons which you already Un-
derstand. In fact, in few wears there vii,
be no railroad horses to speak of for sole
mere, since the new horse-breedns era is
to be conducted along other lines An,eri
can breeders are at last finding out what
me horses are. They have been learning
from the horse shows whose Influence baS
been exceedingly far-reaching They have
peen learning, too, from bitter experience
p" men the trolley came and with if the
bicycle. and with them both the slumn in
prices OF the cheaper grades of horses tho
prices of first-class horses never wayered
In fact. handsome, sound carriag e and
coacn horses were never SO high as now in
this country. They are almost impossihJe
to get. This is because the folks who have
money to spend use horses now iust g ,nuch
as they ever did. They NAV have tha;r
wheel all right, for fun, but they want
their horses and carriages for solid show
all the same, and they want better ones
than they ever wanted before Why- there
are plenty OF beasts going abroad now to
maui tram cars that would have been
thought elegant carriage horses ten wears
ago. 'As
Good coach horses range now from, ssoo
to y, 300 the pair. Those that can he houpbt
for the lowest of these figures are NOT COW
s1dered OF much account, either. and there
is no lack of buyers for any that NAV he
offered at more than the highest rate
named. e
"Five-thous1nd-dolIarc carriage tea am. ORR
snapped up without delay. Whenever tbav
are offered: the trouble is that there are
SO few that are really of this grade to he
o1ered NO; there are not many sales of
high-grade horses in England. They are
worth more here than they are there.
and, in my opinion, that and the fact that
they are not plentiful here, are the reasons
why Enslish coach horses are so often sold
here. - "oio
In spite of the high prices comma nded
by coach horses, can hardly saw thar n
Is surely profitable business as vet II
often happens that colt is bred and rea rod
with the greatest care, only to turn ont
practically worthless as a coach horse to
the great disappointment and damage of