ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE HORSE

In dealing with the horse as a source of national income, or as an opportunity for sport and pleasure, there is little to be taught Americans along the lines of harness-making, carriage-building, and other mechanical appliances for the comfort and best use of the animal. But both owners of horses and their care-takers are often lamentably ignorant of the general history of the horse.

If one is to get most value out of the horse on the farm, as a draught animal in city streets, or on the road, in harness or under saddle, some knowledge of his past history and present value cannot be out of place. The harness, the bit, the vehicle, may be right, but the head, hands, heart, and temper of the coachman may be wrong. To know how the horse came to be what he is, and to know something of the kind of a machine that he now is, will do much to explain his vagaries, and even more to make his owner and user more patient, more gentle, and more intelligent in handling him.

You do not expect poetry from a blacksmith, nor a fourteen-inch forearm on a poet. You deal with men the more comfortably the more you know of their antecedents and training. The same is even more true of this subject of horses. It is not necessary that a man should be an experienced navigator or an off-shore sailor to enjoy a yacht; but on the other hand there is no question but that the man who knows most of these matters gets the most enjoyment out of his boat. It is not necessary to write books in order to enjoy them; but the practice of writing adds an hundred fold to the enjoyment of other men's books.

It is not necessary that a man should be an accomplished palÆontologist, and an experienced veterinary, in order that he may take pleasure in his stable; but some knowledge of these matters adds greatly to one's understanding of the proper treatment of horses, and greatly, too, to one's stock of patience in dealing with their eccentricities and obstinacies. "Mad men and mad horses never will agree together."

The horse is not an intelligent animal as a rule. He is the only animal that loses its head to the point of its own extermination when not restrained and controlled. He has no affectionate recognition of even his best friends. Your dog twists himself into extravagant physical contortions when you return after a month's absence; your horse, on the other hand, is no more warm in his welcome than your saddle. He is, now that he has been so long guarded and cared for by man, a pitiably helpless animal when left to himself. The mere fact that the reins lie on the dash-board, that he hears no voice behind him, that he is free, sends him off at a gallop—possibly to his own destruction.[1]

A certain politician from Tennessee, in describing a particularly erratic party leader, said that he reminded him of a horse sold to a friend of his. Many questions were asked concerning the horse, and finally the seller was asked about his gaits. After some hesitation he finally drawled, "Well, I guess his natural gait is running away!"

This is true of practically all horses, and it is because he is so well known to man and so useful to man, and because he is amongst the animals the greatest pleasure giver to man, that some knowledge of his ancient and modern antecedents and training is desirable.

America is the home of the horse in more senses than one. We have more money invested in horse-flesh than any other country in the world. A very conservative estimate of the value of the horses in this country is something over $1,050,969,093.

Scientific men tell us, too, that the first horses were natives of this country. The prehistoric horse of America probably wandered across Behring's Strait to Europe, Africa, and Asia at a time when that passage was dry land. Though the earliest travellers to, and the first settlers in, America found no horses here, there is no doubt that the horse originated on this continent. Why the horse disappeared entirely from this continent for a long period of time, while flourishing particularly in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, is one of the mysteries that science has not explained. Whether the ice age destroyed them, or a plague or flood swept them away no one knows. Two facts are well known: the first is that the oldest remains of the horse are found in this country; the second is that when Columbus touched at what is now San Domingo in 1493 he brought with him horses, animals that for thousands of years had not been seen here.

In four hundred years we have become the largest owners and users of horses in the world.

Our agricultural supremacy is due in great part to our use of horse-power in our fields and farms. Our superiority in this respect may be seen at a glance by a comparison of the number of horses in the leading European countries and our own. It is to be noted that in many cases these figures comprise, not merely the number of horses on farms, but the total number in the country. For the United States the number given is for horses on farms only.

Iowa, Illinois, and Texas have each almost as many horses as Great Britain, and these three states alone have more horses between them than any foreign country except Russia.

These figures do not include the mules which are more extensively used here than in any other country. Including, with the horses, mules, and asses on farms, those not on farms, it is probable that the United States has more work animals than even the Russian Empire, Siberia included, with a population exceeding that of the United States by many millions.

The horse-power, including mules, on American farms is at least six times that of Germany; twelve times that of Great Britain and Ireland; eight times that of France; thirty times that of Italy; and six times that of Austria and Hungary combined. This difference in horse-power on American farms gives us a great advantage over other countries—so great an advantage indeed that our competition affects land values in Europe, and is gradually forcing a readjustment of the industries of the world. It is estimated that we have invested in horse-flesh in this country $1,050,969,093. In 1901 we exported 82,250 horses, while in 1891 we exported only 3110, and the number of horses increased from 4,337,000 in 1850 to 16,965,000 in 1900. Since 1850 the number of farms has increased 296.1 per cent; acres of improved land 267.0 per cent; and of horses 291.2 per cent, which seems to show that despite the increased use of machinery the horse is still a necessity in agriculture.

What could be gained economically by the intelligent breaking, breeding, shoeing, feeding, harnessing, bitting, driving, and handling of horses in this country is not easily calculable. The difference in the amount of work one horse can do when he is properly stabled, fed, harnessed, and driven, multiplied by millions, gives one some idea of the economic utility of such knowledge. It is well known that good roads add enormously to the availability of agricultural land and has a notable effect upon the cheapening of farm products. The first men to agitate for good roads, and they who do most to see that good roads are provided, are the users of horses. One might indeed write a telling chapter of eulogy on the horse, if one gave him the credit due him, for bringing about the cheapening of products necessary to the comfort and pleasure of mankind.

This whole subject of the care of the horse takes on a new aspect when it is looked at with these figures in mind. Books on driving, riding, and the like should be classed, not merely with books of sport and pleasure, but with scientific and economic treatises.

We are a nation with over a billion dollars invested in equine machinery. It is an absurd misunderstanding of the subject to look upon the time, money, and intelligence devoted to the driving, bitting, and harnessing of horses as so much time, money, and intelligence devoted to a sport of the rich and fashionable. If we had a steel plant, or a coal company with $100,000,000 invested therein, no investigation would be too minute, no saving of labor here, no improvement there, and no supervision would seem out of place in adding to the economy and efficiency of such an aggregation of capital. The man who can bit, harness, and drive four horses, or two horses, comfortably to himself, and to his horses, is adding just so much to the understanding of a subject which is of practical bread-and-butter interest to every man, woman, and child in the United States. Every ounce more of work that a horse can be harnessed to do, every practical hint that the master of horses can be induced to apply, every yard of road that can be improved, take something off the cost of everything we eat, drink, or wear. To put a coach on the road for a few weeks in the spring, to turn out a well-mannered pair for a lady's phaeton, to temper the disposition of two horses so that they bowl along pleasantly in a tandem, may at the first blush seem to be merely the idle vagaries of the unemployed rich. As a matter of fact, the knowledge and patience required in these exercises percolates through all classes of horse owners, and produces a marked effect from the utilitarian standpoint. We of the large cities, with steam and electricity as our daily servants of locomotion, ignore the twenty odd million agricultural machines in this country that are helping to feed and clothe us, and get to look upon the horse as merely the fashionable physician's prescription for the liver, under saddle; or a fashionable appendage of wealth, when in harness.

294a

Earliest known species of horse, eleven inches high, with four complete toes, and remainder of fifth on fore feet, and three on hind feet]

294b

In forty years we have increased from 33,000,000 to 82,000,000 in population; from $174,000,000 to $873,000,000 in agricultural products exported; from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 farms; from $8,500,000,000 to $22,000,000,000 total value of farm property; from $1,500,000,000 to $4,500,000,000 annual value of farm products; from $1,250,000,000 to $2,500,000,000 total value of farm animals, and from $17,000,000,000 to $100,000,000,000 total national wealth. In this progress the horse has played a very large part, and, contrary to the general and ignorant opinion, the horse still maintains his place as the most valuable piece of all-round useful machinery in the world.

One has merely to note the way in which this valuable partner of our national prosperity is stabled, groomed, harnessed, and handled to excuse the writing of any number of books, and the persistent hammering away upon this subject. Sport and athletics are serious subjects because they are so vitally important to the physical comfort of man; and this branch of sport which deals with the horse, is of surprisingly vital interest to the nation when one comes to investigate it.

The cruelty, impatience, and ignorance displayed by the great majority of horse-steerers—they are nothing more nor less than that—are apparent wherever we turn. Not only the shockheaded MicMac who tools the grocery wagon about our crowded streets; not only the Sunday boy who indulges his Rowena in an hebdomadal picnic on wheels; but the hundreds of so-called coachmen who drive the high-priced horses of their masters in reins, bits, head-stalls, and collars fitted without discrimination upon any horse that comes into the stable,—all alike are in dire need of learning how to make the most of their opportunities.

It is not to be expected that every man who owns, or handles, a horse should be a veterinary, but the elementary principles of harnessing and bitting a horse so that he can do his work comfortably ought to be required of every one who, either for his own pleasure, or for hire, has anything to do with horses. Such an one ought to know how he came to have his present teeth and legs, his present mouth and small stomach, which reveals at once the secret of many of his weaknesses and their proper care. Not to know, or to care to know, any of these things is to lessen the value of your horses as work-horses very materially, and to deprive yourself of the best part of the pleasure of dealing with your horses, if you have them and handle them merely for sport.

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