The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-02-17
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The Horse Importing Business.

The Horse Importing Business.
DR.. D. E. Salmon, chief of the Gov
ernment Bureau of Animal Industry at
Washington, D. c., has come out in
print as opposed to the wholesale i'm
portation of stations for purposes OF
speculation only. He thinks that
horses of the best quality and known
purity of blood, animals that will be
the most likely to benefit cur horse
stock when used for breeding purposes
should be brought over the water
freely, but that hundreds of other
stations, not of the best quality or
breeding, had better be left In their
native countries. This at least is the
purport Of what he has said to one
who reads between the lines under
standingly; and in our opinion there
is need for just such opposition as this
and for action also looking to the i'm
provement of the character of the
horses imported, writes A. S. Alexan"
der in Farmers Review.
DR.. Salmon points out that while
stations are imported in great num-
bers few mares are brought over, COM
paratively speaking. This indeed has
been the case, and the reason appar-
emily is that mare cannot be sold to
company of farmers for price far
exceeding her value. The mare has
to be bought by one man or firm and
not more than fair price, including
expense of importation, will be paid
Tor her. On the other hand the stall
lion will make money for the owner,
and for that reason a company buys
him at very high price, which does
not seem so high after it has been
divided among twenty partners. So
brisk has been the demand for stall
lions of late that importers have
brought them in by the hundred and
have sold most of them to companies.
Many of the stations have been
poor specimens and many of them un-
sound, while as many more have been
so short in pedigree that they could
not be expected to do the best of work
in breeding, although they we're elig-
ible to entry free of duty. At the
same time it must be conceded that a
great many finely bred and individual
ly excellent and sound stations have
been imported, and these animals will
have a grand effect upon the horse
stock of the districts in which they
happen to be used. Many horses of
this class, however, have gone into
the northwest territories of Canada,
where there are many capable judges
and where great attention is being
paid to the breeding of heavy draft
horses. There they will be used in
telligently, and it will not be long
until the districts in question are fair
ly we'll provided with home-bred stock
of fine quality and utility. There it
will be possible to find home-bred stall
lions fit for use on high-grade and
even pure-bred mares, and the work
now being done is fastening the time
when importation Of stations will no
longer be necessary.
DR.. Salmon thinks it will be well
when we can do without the imported
stations, and there is a great deal Of
common sense in his arguments in
that direction; but in our opinion it
will be very many years before we can
manage to get along without imported
stations. The chief reason is that
we are not using the stock we import
in an intelligent manner, in that we
mix breeds yearly and continue to fill
the country with mixed-bred and mon
grel horses. The next reason is that
pure-bred mares are scarce and that
it is no longer possible to grade up
all horses to recordable purity of
blood. If we at once are to supply
our breeders with the stations they
require it must be done by men who
own large bands Of pure-bred mares
bred intelligently year after year
to the best of stations for the produc-
tion of stations good enough to use
in place of imported stock. Unfor-
tunately, however, success has been
rare where mares were banded to-
gether in large herds for breeding
purposes. Greatest success comes from
each farmer breeding one or two pure
bred work mares. Work is necessary
to prolifcacy and strong constitution.
We want to encourage as much as
possible the breeding of a few pure
bred mares of heavy draft or other
useful stock by common farmers
rather than many mares by large firms
of capitalists. When this is brought
about there will be plenty of good
stations in the country without going
abroad for them, but our farmers will
have to be educated to breed horses
intelligently and feed them generous
ly before the present state of affairs
can be changed.
Early Maturity.
Early maturity is one of the lead