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LACK OF QUALITY IN ARMY REMOUNTS. Major-Gen. Leonard Wood complains that the quality of remounts for the United States army lnv deteriorated during the past twenty-six years and that the question, especially for the cavalry and artillery .i$ now a serious one. The army requires only about two thousands remounts a year under ordinary conditions, yet General Wood declares that only a few good horses are secured, although the country is scoured by the agents for the army. The European armies have far better horses than the United States, due undoubtedly to the fact that the foreign governments foster the breeding industry. Congress lias always specified that all money appropriated for army horses should be spent for purchasing only and none devoted to the breeding industry. This was admirable iu theory, as at the beginning it afforded an outlet for extra horses of the breeders, but now, and for many years, the latter have been unable to supply tho horses required and something must be done to stimulate the breeding industry. The Government, through the Burea of Animal Industry, attached to the Department of Agriculture, has done a little in this direction by placing stallions of suitable types in certain localities, but this activity Is of such recent date that it is as vet Impossible to foretell whether or not It will work out successfully. Certainly there is complaint from many lines of business as well as from the army in regard to the lack of good horses. It is safe to predict that the breeders that will make plans to supply this demand will be well rewarded, for each year sees the prices of horses soaring. Western Horseman.
