Mexico weekly ledger., 1901-10-10
HOW TO SELL war" HORSES.
They Must be Sent to Market to be
Bought By Contractors English
Officers do Not Buy Individual
Consignments.


We have been in receipt recently OF
inquiries from a number Of country
correspondents relative to whether or
not there were any British officers In
the United States buying war stock"
and as TO where they could be address
ed. From the tenor Of them We would
infer that our questioners have horses
or mules 70 sell and think that the
business must be done directly with
the British agents. This is not the
case. The agents do not buy individual
ly ON the market. Orders are let In
the way 81 contracts TO different deal
ers, who buy the animals by the hun
dreds ia the auction, in the country,
or wherever they can and when sufiic-
lent are secured 10 make up a good
days inspection work, the British off,
GERS go over the bunch and inspect
them, taking such as are acceptable
and rejecting those which are not. 1t
would be impractical for them to hold
an open inspection bureau somewhere
and await the arrival of consignments
from each individual shipper, who
when he did come, would probably not
have more than one or two desirable
animals in a whole carload intended
for the purpose. That is why the or
derS for so many at a time are let to
professional dealers, who know how
to class them and can therefore get
together several hundred head with
the possibility Of the least number Of
rejects The answer consequently is
there is no way in whicha shipper can
get his horses before the English
purchasing agents. They must be
sent to the market and sold to the
contractors, and will in the majority
of instances bring all that they are
worth, for In times when orders exist
the dealers are about as anxious to
buy as the shippers are to sell. 1t is
to the advantage Of consignors that is
the case, for in the event where one
thought he had suitable cavalry horses
and did not the same horses would find
an outlet through some other source,
possibly at better values than cavalry
buyers would pay for them.
But at this writing there are no or
ders in existence for either horses or
mules for the British government
There have not been any for mules in
a month or more, and none for horses
in about two weeks. So far as the
mule end OF the buying is concerned IL
has been quiet so long as TO give forth
the belief that no more would be pur-
chased In the future, but this is and
always has been an uncertain propo-
itlon. No one can tell when orders
might bob up again, though at the
present time 1t seems quite unlikely.
The statement with regard 10 there
being no horse orders might be modl-
fed by saying that II there are any,
they are Of a provisional and dormant
nature and at present are showing no
marks Of activity.
One Of the dealers who has been
most prominent in the English
horse-buying movement since the war
began, said the other day that he had
expectations that more and many more
horses would be taken and what was
more he did not care. 1.-THE inspectors
have become too exacting with us, "
he said, "and it has now become a more
difficult matter to handle with any
reasonable margin OF profit, on account
OF the increasing number Of rejects.
The British demand was a good thing
during the summer months when
things were quiet, and 1t was quite a
help to the general market, but now
that the southern demand is well I'M
der way we do not have to depend
upon it for an outlet for our small
horses or as a means of profit from their
sale, for in many instances the south
ern buyers will pay as much or more
for the same grade Of horses as will
the British government. In fact, it is
the southern demand which has made
the British business cease to be as
profitable as it had hitherto been, for
the reason that the one comes into d.
rect competition with the other and
makes it more difficult to purchase on
a reasonable margin.''