Valdez daily prospector., 1914-11-24
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER "A, 1914.
THE KNELL OF THE HORSE.

IL IS I vast ucCtdCOluu ol uoi oCo, q sacrifice which may end almost in the extermination of mans best friend. The conflict may, indeed, mark the end of equine epoch that began be- fore the dawn of history
 The present wastage of horses is incalculable. With more than 20,000,- 900 men under arms, there must be several million horses employed. The first emergency order issued by the British war office called for 74,00O horses for the artillery and transport service and 56,000 for the cavalry. Subsequent drafts doubtless run in- to the hundreds of thousands, for England's small army alone. They have been taken from the blow, the delivery wagon, the livery, the omni- bus. Stock farms have been robbed of all but the finest brood mares and blooded stallions. Hunters trained to take fence like a swallow are now leaping barbed wire entanglements in pursuit of human quarry. Polo pon- ies accustomed to shock and skilled to spin and plunge are wearing their lives out in pitiless scouting expedi- tions or cavalry charges. Their humber brethren are dragging heavy guns and caissons and commissary wagons over the broken highways and through the mud of a thousand positions on the complex battle front.
 The rout of every army, particu- larly an army in retreat, can be trac- ed by the swollen bodies of horses In this war the mortality of the poor brutes is unprecedented owing to the vast amount of artillery engaged and the extent and fierceness of the strug- gle. Their bodies lie by thousands and tens of thousands along the Marne river and the Aisne. They clog the muddy ditches and canals of Flanders. They fill the swamps of East Prussia and dot the plains of Russian Poland and the valleys of Galicia. Every stream in Belgium and northern France is polluted with their carcasses.
 It is incredible how soon sound horse wears out in arduous campaign ing Military officers say it is doubt full whether any of the contending armies has in it's service today single horse that did duty at the opening of the war. The cavalry work, particularly of the scouting parties, which calls for incessant rid ing day after day at top speed, kills a horse in two weeks to a month, or so breaks it's spirit and endurance that it is worthless thereafter. Its reward is a bullet in the head.
 It is well known that horses, in spite of their strength and size, have less endurance than men. Seasoned infantry, in the long run, can out march the best cavalry. Moreover, horses are subject to the same fate as soldiers They are more liable to wounds, because more openly exposed and. their wounds oftener prove fla tai. Overwork, underfeeding, bad wa ter, exposure, wreak havoc with them faster than with humans.
 If 2,OO0,OO0 or 3,000,00O horses which seems a low estimate-have al ready gone to the scrap heap in this war, we may form some notion of the total sacrifice to be expected. Great Britain is already pretty thor oughly drained of available beasts. Every decent horse in Belgium was coniscated by the Germans. Germany must by this time have exhausted most of her own cavalry and draft animals, and can import but few. Ii many German cavalry troops are not already permanently dismounted, they soon will be- The guns will have tc depend more and more on automo piles and steam traction engines fol conveyance. No wonder England de clares gasoline "contraband."
 Russia, with her great numbers o1 hard-riding Cossacks and her bat bad roads must be suffering an ap palling waste of horses. But her ow1 supply is almost inexhaustible France, like Great Britain, can i'm port fresh material as the old wear! out.
 Therein lies one of the best war op portunities of the United tSates. Al ready French and British army off cers in Chicago, Kansas City and St Louis, buying horses by tens of thou sands. The purchases are sure to in