The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-12-24
Fine Prospect for Horse Breeder

paid are not high, in the aggregate
an enormous amount of money will
accrue on this account to the farmer
that he could not otherwise have oh
tanned from any other source.
1t cannot be long, moreover, be-
fore the cotton begins to move, and
simultaneously with the clearance of
the first ships loaded with the fleecy
staple for abroad will come the recru-
descence of the South's capacity to
absorb neat, small horses such as they
have always bought in years past. 1t
may be six months, or perhaps long
er, perhaps not SO long, before the
cotton begins to go abroad again, but
when it does there will be such a
cleaning up Of the supply of small
chunks as there never has been In
this country before. Like Old Mother
Hubbard's famous ice box, that sup
ply will be swept bare by the South
ern demand of what the export orders
have left in stock. So much for the
least desirable of all our equine
stocks.
Farm Demand Heavy.
This brings us to by far the most
important factor concerned with the
future of the horse market, to-wit,
the farm demand. This year the
American farmer harvested the great
est crop of wheat that ever blessed a
nation-a billion bushels in round
numbers-and sold. not as most
bumper crops are sold, for bottom
prices, but instead on a level aver
aging above the dollar, filling the
farmers wallets comfortably and
making possible the cancellation Of
much floating Indebtedness.
On top of this comes the prospect
for a two-and-one-half-bi n-bushel
crop of corn, with every indication
Of a big price to be paid for every
ounce of it. Oats. rye and barley all
stand in the same category, and not
only with the achieved certainty of
high prices for the bumper crop this
year, but the practical assurance of
high wheat prices, at least, In 1915.
Postwar Prospect.
History tells us that wheat has al
ways remained high after the close
of a great war involving Europe. In
Canada after the Crimean war, wheat
sold for three years between 81 and
So a bushel. Europe had a short
crop of all grains this year-that is,
all Europe but Great Britain-and
the war has made 1t far shorter still.
Wheat, and probably all other grains,
must remain high for another year
at least.
This means that every available
foot of land in the United States will
be put into grain of some sort. The
breadth of Fall wheat to go into the
ground this year will surpass all pre-
vious records. Unless all signs fail
the Spring wheat country Is due for
a crop of parts in 1915 which pre-
sages an increased Spring wheat
acreage for next cropping season.
More horses are at work right
now getting the ground ready for
Fall wheat than ever before worked
at that job in this country, so much
so, indeed, that some of the dealers in
eastern territory who make a spe-
cialty of supplying horses to farmers
are already quietly accumulating
small numbers and dickering them
off for immediate use in the leather.
Next Spring the demand for farm
chunks promises, for the reasons
quoted, to be stronger than we and
while we will have a world Of those
mean horses to sell, the demand
promises to absorb them all.
Could Prospect Be Brighter?
How, then, could the prospects
ahead of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS be
much brighter? For years the farm
demand has dominated the Ameri-
can horse trade. With prospects for
a greatly increased acreage In crop,
and, in consequence, In the number
of horses required to put it in the
ground, how can the prospects be
other than bright?
Filling in the picture, and round
ing it out nicely, is the promise that
there will be roughage a plenty to
enable the farmers to carry their
horses through Winter cheaply, and
with an abundant supply of money,
returned by the high-priced crop of
1914, they will be under no undue
pressure to sell until they get good
and ready.
Market horses even of the higher
grades are not selling to advantage
just now, but the supply can never
a-.. IyInna1rn II H. 80 &kA