The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-13

spect they differ from the Dictators and
Happy Mediums.
AS Mr. Rommel. in his interesting
pamphlet on the subject. has well said:
THE mounting OF troops in an army
is a most serious problem, Not only
must provision be made for a supply Of
horses sufficient to equip the mounted
service for the ordinary routine work
during peace, but horses multiply slowly,
and a reserve must be provided for use
in case of an outbreak of hostilities. In
the solution of this problem the Euro
pean countries, with the exception OF
England, have for more than a century
expended large sums of money in the
encouragement of horse breeding, by
maintaining breeding farms, by granting
subsidies to stations by prizes for
horses of suitable type, and by grants
| to breeders associations, prizes for rae
ing, &c. England has heretofore been
content to rely upon the resources OF
her colonial possessions and the United
States for such horses but her expert
ence in the Boer war ten years ago, when
she was forced to drain North America
of a large proportion of the horses suit
able for military purposes, has compelled
her to accede to the demands Of the
army, and a grant of 100000 has been
made by the board of agriculture 10
encourage the breeding of military horses
at home. That the United States faces
a similar condition is a very widespread
opinion.
The waste of horsefesh in times Of
war is far more enormous than the
ordinary citizen comprehends. There
were\ purchased for the armies of the
United States In the fiscal year ended
June 80, 1864 1Ss71s horses. There were
captured from the enemy and reported
70. 3SS. Leaving out of consideration those
captured and not reported, ii should be
observed that the army required 800
each day for removals.. This. therefore,
is the measure OF destruction of horses
during the same period. During the
eight months of the year 1854 the cavalry
of the Army of the Potomac was sup
piled with two remounts. nearly 10000
horses. The supply of fresh horses to the
army of Gen. Sheridan during his
campaign in the valley of the Shenan-
doah has been at the rate of $50 per
day. During the Russian campaign the
French crossed the Nieman in June. 1872,
with cavalry, artillery, and train horses
to the extent of 127.121. About 5000 of
these pertained to the cavalry. On De-
cember Is the remnant of the invading
army irecrossed the Nieman with 1900
cavalry horses. In six months the horses
had all disappeared.
The contract system of purchase so
long in vogue, has proven unsatisfactory
TO the government and to the breeder
The system led to the building up of
the class of middlemen, who purchased
animals from the breeders, presented
them for the action of the government
inspectors, and sold them at the con-
tract price. Until recently this price
ranged from 500 to $50. Considering
the large expense to which the contrac-
tor would be put, it could not be expect
ed that all of the governments money
would be invested in horsefesh. The re-
suit was, considering the profit of the
contractor, his expenses, &C, that the
price paid by the government secured
for the cavalry a horse worth from $40
to 500. Nothing is known of the breed
ing of these animals further than that
they were probably of such and such
breeding" Often the question of breed
ing was not raised, the principal requis-
lite being that they should give promise