Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-05-18
BIG SLUMP IN HORSE VALUES.
Decrease of $500. 900, 600 in Six Years,
Mules Now Being Worth More.

Jan. I, 1898, there were, according
to official figures, 16,200,000 horses in
the United States, representing a total
value Of a little more than $1,000
100000, or 1907, 593, 636, to be exact.
At the same time the number of mules
in the United States was 2,315 900,
representing a total value of S175, 0O0,-
600. Since then conditions have
operated to diminish the commercial
value of horses, the total number of
which in the country on Jan. l last
was 13,700,000 and the estimated value
of which was less than S50,000,00O, a
decrease of more than one-half in six
years.
The horse has had to encounter the
ruinOus competition of the bicycle,
the electric car, the cable car, the
automOtOr and much new and i'm
proved farming machinery; but these
forms of competition, which have re-
duced 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 cond1-
tons have diminished the value At
the present time, taking the whole
country, the average value of horse
is S35, and taking the whole country,
except the New England states,
where mules are very few in num-
Der, the value of mule is S42. Mules
are worth more than horses-a pc
cuniary degradation for the prince
of animals" and a marked distinc-
ton for the patient, humble, long
suffering unmusical, American mule,
the butt of the paragrapher, the &C
cepted type of stolidity 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 var
iety of causes, the first and most i'm
portant of which is that the demand
for higher-priced horses has visibly
diminished, while the horse of all
work of the farm and Of the high
way remains in great demand. Again,
horses have always been in largest
demand in level parts of the country.
1t is in these that the use of mechani-
cal contrivances has become more
general, while mules, in greatest de-
mand in hilly regions, remain in de-
mand in these. A final reason for the
greater average value of mules COM
pared with horses is to be found in
the question of forage. A horse is
very much more expensive to main
tain 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 milder regions Of the coun-
try, in which mules are cheaply hous-
ed 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 Min
nesota is confessedly one of the
states in which winters are very
severe. In South Carolina, on the
other hand, there were on Jan. 1 Co.
600 horses and 100000 mules, and in
Georgia there were 10000 horses and
165,0O mules.
First among the states Of the cOun-
try in the number Of mules is Texas;
next comes Missouri, and then Georgia
and Tennessee. California has a
considerable number and Kansas and
Arkansas a large number too. The
leading states for horses in respect to
their total number and the hay and
Oat crops to maintain them are Hi
nois 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
mining industries, has nearly ten
times as many mules as New York.
The American mule, as has often
teen truly said, is worthy of much
better and higher recognition than
popular estimate awards it. The
American mule is an animal of endur-
ance and an important factor in the
wealth Of the agricultural states, more
particularly in the great cotton belt,
where ten acres and a mule is the
measure Of the ambition of many of
the negro tenant farmers.-NeW York
Sun.