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■ ■ 1 , , , THE HORSE IN THE WAR OF TODAY. One e f the current magazines contains an article calleel "The Passing of the War Horse." by Mr. John B. C. Kershaw. This passing "marks the commencement of a new stage in warfare." we are told, anil Mr. Kershaw writes e f "tlie elisappear-ance of the horse" as though the animal had alreaely liecome practically extine-t. Probably Mr. Kershaw supposes that this is so. He woulel not lie the first contributor to a magazine who had written on a subject alMiut which he was somewhat ill informed: but the contribut011. if it had any effee-t. would have an unfortunate one in spreading the idea that there was ne cceasion fer any anxiety alM.ut the supply of horses for cavalry and for innumerable purposes for whieh they are utilized iu warfare: and for that rea-on I touch uiHin it. Mr. Kershaw must have be»eii rather surprised, after having satisfie-d himself that the horse had "passeel." to read of 0O.O0O Ge-rman e-avalrv fighting against the Russian neu-thern army, because these only e-on-stitute a fraction of the mounted forces of the Huns: and if the writer of the article imagines that the Cossacks fight on foot, or that there are only a few of them, he has been misinformed in both partie-ulars. Ratlie»r more than a dozen of my personal friends haTe been buying horses for the army, at home and abroad, anil in another magazine a few months ago we read — in a e-ontribution written by a man who knew what he was writing about — that "in the middle of May the nuiiilicr" — of horses in the British army in France and Belgium — "was about !50. lh0." By now tl:e-re are many more. Italian cavalry is famous for the» manner in which it crosses country, which those who elid not know the e-apae-ity of onr allies woulel lie apt to dese-ribe as utterly iinprtietii-ablc: for the horses climb like geiats. and descend mountain sides, sliudtfrringlv perilous declivities. Military operations in Egypt are not conilucteel exclusively on foot ami on wheels, with a few camels thrown in. Of course. Mr. Kershaw e-annot have nntie-eel heiw many of Hie soldiers he meets in the slre-ets we-ar spurs? A few years ago it liMiked as if the manufacturers of the-se implements must 1m» carrying c.n a sadly waning trade-. but it lias brisked up amazingly during the last fourteen months. It has lieen cab-nlate-.I that over a million horses are- employed daily on the eoitine-ut by tin- different armies, and that the- e-re-ature- will ever have "pas.-ed" so long as arme-s take the- tie-bl it is impssible- to be-lie-ve. Kahadp nowadays pretends to eleny the in.lis|M-nsability of 1he» motor car. The old fashoiie.l people- who girded against it when it first came intei vogue are as extinct as the men who were persuaded that railways would ruin tin- country in quite a variety or eliffei -nt waxs. The question or tlie- horse- snpplv is, in truth, what- ever Mr. Kershaw anil those who share- his raith mar suppose, a se-rious one. and that is a leading reason why the siispe-iisiou of racing is so ele-eply to Im regretted. Iiiiii.lre-.ls of potential sire-s of just the- animals most urgently lie.-, led having been render.l use-less for what is set forth as being tlie main objee-t of the- turf. -Loudon Referee.
