The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-05-04
yALuATror OF HORsEs.

Statistics complied Dy the Depart-
ment of Agriculture at Washington
seen to indicate that the advent of
the horseless age, which was sup
posed to be close at hand when auto
mobiles first came into use a few years
ago, is receding further into the fu-
ture with each succeeding year. The
official census of farm animals, just
completed, shows that the number of
horses and mules in the United States
is now 23,564, 900, valued at S2,274,-
642, 900.
By comparison with the records of
seven years ago, when motor vehi-
cles, it may be said, started in to put
the horse out of business, the census
of 1906 is not exactly discouraging to
breeders and dealers. In 1900 there
were 1888, 900 horses and $685.
900 mules in the country waiting to
be replaced by automobiles, and each
annual census since then has shown
an increase in their number and
value. There are now Io,747, 900
horses and 3,817, 900 mules, or about
5000, ,ooo-nearly so per cent
more than there were seven years
ago. To give full force to these fig
ures it must be stated further that in
the seven years preceding 1900 there
was a falling off of 2,oI4 900 in the
number of horses and mules in the
United States, caused, no doubt, by
the panic of 1893 coming on the heels
of an unexampled boom in horse
breeding.
Remarkable as the rate of increase
in the horse stock has been for the
full period of seven years since 1900,
it is thrown in the shade by the re-
cords of the last two years. While
the increase for four years preceding
January I, 1905, was $4,000, the
gain since 1905 has reached the as
tonishing total of 3,6IS,ooo head. In
other words, the horse stock of the
United States has, according to De-
partment statistics, increased more
than ten times as much in the last
two years as in the preceding four
years.
Nothing like the expansion revealed
by these official records has ever been
known in the horsebreeding industry.
At first blush it would seem as if there
must be an overproduction of horses
when their numbers are increasing as
the rate of more than 1900, 900, a
year, yet market records compiled by
the Department of Agriculture go to
show that production has been out
stripped by the unprecedented indus
trial and commercial developments OF
the country, demanding millions more
horses than ever before.
The records disclose the fact that
prices for horses on the farms have
advanced more than rs per cent.
within two years. Incredible as 1t
may seem, the mere increase in value
of the horse stock since January l.,
1905, is greater by $Io6 700, 900 than
the total value of all the horses and
mules in the United States on Janu-
ary I, 1900. When the census Of
1000 was taken all the horses and
mules in the country were estimated
to be worth $715,787,ooo. Five years
later they were worth $I,452,I5o,-
900, while their farm value is now
So, ,274. $4,000 or $1,55S,855, 900
more than it was seven years ago, and
$822, ,4o2, 900 more than in 1905.
Mule values alone have jumped in
the last two years from. .$251 ,84o, 900
| to $428 ,o64, 900, sum greater than
the estimated value of all the auto
mobiles in the country, including
machines costing $1oo, ,ooo, 900 that
are now on the scrap heap. With
these figures before them breeders
and dealers are perhaps warranted in
holding to the belief that without
putting the horse out of business il
| will keep the motor cars busy to
catch up with the long-eare6 hybrids
whose top notes so resemble their
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