The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-14
BIG SLUMP IN HORSE VALUES.
Decrease of $5OO,OOO.O0O in Six Years
Mules Now Being Worth More.

Decrease of $5OO,OOO.O0O in Six Years
Mules Now Being Worth More.
Jan. l. 1898, there were, according to
official figures, 16, 900 horses in the
United States, representing a total
value of little more than 81, 900 900 900,
or 1907, 593 ,636 to be exact. At the
same time the number of mules in the
United States was 2,315.000 representing
a total value of $l75,000,o00. Since then
conditions have operated to diminish
the commercial value of horses. the to-
tai number of which in the country on
Jan. l las. was Is, 100000 and the esti-
mated value Of which was less than
$500, 900, 000 a decrease of more than one
half in six years.
The horse has had to encounter the
runous competition Of the bicycle. the
electric car, the cable car, the automo-
tor and much new and improved farm
ing machinery; but these forms Of COM
petition, which have reduced SO largely
the number and value of horses in the
United States, have been of small effect
upon the number of mules. though in
reducing the demand for them the new
conditions have diminished the value.
At the present time, taking the whole
country, the average value of a horse
is $35, and taking the whole country.
except the New England states. where
mules are very few in number, the
value of a mule is $42. Mules are worth
more than horses--1a pecuniary degrada-
ton for the prince of animals and a
marked distinction for the patient
humble, longsufferins, unmusical
American mule, the butt of the para
grapher, the accepted type of stoiditv
and the time wasting quadruped Of
many parts of the country
The decline in the value of the horse
compared to the mule is due to a va
riety of causes, the first and most i'm
portant of which is that the demand for
higher priced horses has visibly dmn-
ished while the horse Of all work of the
farm and of the highway remains in
great demand. Again, horses have al
ways been in largest demand in level
parts of the country. 1t is in these shat
the use of mechanical contrivances mas
become more general, while mules, in
greatest demand in hilly regions, re-
main in demand in these. A final rea-
son for the greater average value of
mules compared with horses is to be
found in the question of forage. A
horse is very much more expensive to
maintain than a mule and, moreover,
horses are more numerous, relatively.
in those parts of the country in which
the climate is rigorous and severe than
in the mider regions of the country in
which mules are cheaply housed and
cheaply fed. In the state of Minnesota.
for instance, there were at the time of
the last count 100000 horses and only
$500 mules. and Minnesota is confess
eddy one of the states in which winters
are very severe. In South Carolina. on
the other hand, there were on Jan. 1
$4,000 horses and 100000 mules, and in
Georgia there We're 10000 horses and
165 900 mules.
First among the states of the country
in the number of mules is Texas; next
comes Missouri. and then Georgia and
Tennessee. California has considera-
bic number and Kansas and Arkansas
a large number too. The leading states
for horses in respect to their total num-
Der and the hay and oat crops to main
tain them are Illinois and Iowa Two
states which have, relatively, no mules
to speak of when compared with the
number of horses, are New York and
Michigan. Pennsylvania, because of it's
coal and iron mining industries, has
nearly ten times as many mules as New
York
The American mule as has often
been truly said, is worthy of much bet
ter and higher recognition than popular
estimate awards it. The American
mule is an animal of endurance, and an
important factor in the wealth of the
agricultural states, more particularly
in the great cotton belt, where 10 acres
and a mule is the measure of the am
bition Of many of the negro tenant
farmers.-New York Sun.