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FEWER MARES AND FOALS G Influence of the War on Thoroughbred Breeding in England. and de m tl Signs of Return to Pre -War Con- J.1-ditions has Are Shown by Renewed ii! and w Interest in Bloodstock. T i bi BY E. E. COUSSELL. I.OIOX, England, August S. A new volume ot t to the English Stud Book was published at the end of July. It is tin: twenty-fourth volume and 120 years h.ive passed since the first Stud Book was issued. The period covered by the book just out is 1010 to p 1920. The statistics wliicli appear in volume 24 iiironl some useful and interesting information as E to Hie inlluence of the war on bloodstock breeding in Great Britain and Ireland. It is apparent- in two r ways: First, by the number of foals bred and, secondly, L the number of mares at the stud. The average number of foals bred in the four r years, 1916 to li20, was 3,191. The actual lowest was in 1919, when only .,019 thoroughbred foals J were registered. In 1909 the number of foals entered was 3,099. We Were then at the commence- I went .f a period of remarkable development. From 1900 to 1914 the value of the; bloodstock of all de- C svrij.tions, and particularly of yearlings, and brood males increased tremendously. I During the period named the value of yearlings, as judged by the public Hales, advanced over no I per etiit., but during the same years the average value of brood mares, judged by the December sales 1 standard, increased from ,110 to ,5G5. It was this prosperity which induced owners to enlarge .1 their studs and brought other breeders into the field. Tliis was conclusively proved by the number of 1 foals bred between 1913 and 1910. The yearly average was 3,555, and the highest years w?re 1915, 1 with S.H87, and 1910, with 3.0S9. In the year 1910 the total was 070 foals higher than in 1909. C WARS EFFECT ON BREEDING. i It was in 1910 that labor and fodder became scarce and dear. Many studs were carried on at a T loss; many old mares were destroyed and not replaced. The effect of this policy is revealed in the foal returns for 1917 and 1920, when the average for the four years was 3,109. When the war terminated, naturally the outlook for breeders underwent a change, which as time has gone on brought considerable improvement. It is most satisfactory that in 1920 there were eighty-three more foals . bred than in the previous year. In 1901 there were r,249 brood mares on the stud , farms in this country and Ireland. Seven years later the figure was reduced to 4,443. In 1908 the total . began to increase again, and by 1910 it had reached o,574. In 1917 the influence of the war was felt . inasmuch as the total of mares registered was 5,40.", and in 1920 there were only 5,000 thorough- . bred mares registered. Now we shall again see a rapid and substantial advance. The pages of the new Stud Book devoted to the , number of thoroughbreds exported during the four . years, 1910 to 1920, are most interesting, as will be seen from the following table: j Table Showing the Number of Thoroughbreds Exported from Great Britain and Ireland During- the Xast Three Quadrennial Periods, and the Countries to "Which They Were Sent. South America: 1909-12. 1913-10. 1917-20. Argentina 331 30 21 Brazil 273 244 309 . Uruguay 80 13 2 ! Chile 09 10 1-4 Peru .. S 5 Columbia .. 4 ! : Destination not specified 293 25 1 - Canada 49 20 35 United States 31 070 210 Australia and X. Zealand 247 537 112 ! Austria and Hungary .... Ill 14 2 Belgium 322 102 4G5 South Africa S14 043 017 r Denmark 148 72 87 France 429 197 410 Germany 899 104 25 -, Holland 41 5 17 j India 28 201 827 j Italy 91 39 07 1 Japan 50 24 7 j Roumania 30 22 Russia 130 01 Spain 51 171 Sweden and Norway 2S 28 42 2 Switzerland 2 .1 Miscellaneous 23 05 312 2 . Totals 4,531 3,253 3,771 Chiefiy exports to the smaller Britisli Colonies. In dealing with the figures for the United States it is of course common knowledge that there were a few importations of English thoroughbreds during ? 1915 and 1910. In 1917 came the intensive submarine 1- campaign, with the inevitable result that t until the termination of the war hardly any horses s left English ports for the United States. A good J number were exported in 1919, but in 1920, owing to o the fact that there was foot and mouth disease e among cattle in England, the United States government i- prohibited the import of horses of every character - from England. From England last year there e were only two shipments of thoroughbreds and d these took place in October and December, when II lrince Palatine, Brown Prince, Nassovian and Archaic - came over. From December until June this year shipments s were again licit up, but they are now possible, provided the feed and bedding are brought from . the United States, which has been arranged by the Atlantic Transport Line. The unfortunate part .t Is that that fact has hugely increased the rate e of freight, even as compared with war rates. The cheapest stall now costs 00, and an ordinary y padded stall in which a brood mare is sent over :r costs 50. These are about double the amounts s which ruled during the war period, aiid naturally restrict business. All the same, the American thoroughbred :. must inevitably derive great benefit from n the many valuable importations of the past few w years. It is these expense problems -which have caused j . the enormous shrinkage of the exportation of thor-bred horses to Australia and New Zealand, especially . during the last four years. The shipping rates advanced from about 210 to .00, for freight ,t alone. It will be noticed there has also been a a big decline in the number of horses sent to South " America, with the exception of Brazil. Brazil has imported largely since 1919. A plan III greatly favored in that country is for the Jockey !-v Club to buy batches of yearling fillie which are re Bold to Brazilian owners, practically for their cost, subject to the stipulation that they are not to be Je resold out of Brazil and kept for breeding purposes. s- Whatever may be the position at the present moment, " it cannot have been due to commercial depression e- with other South American countries that 11 1 they have practically ceased impoiting during the ie last eight years. If breeders in the Argentine can afford to dispense s- witli any imported British brood mares and "l fillies, they are in a more fortunate position than 111 breeders in every other country, for the thoroughbred is purely a British product and, like other sr animals taken from its native haunts, deteriorates PS when sent abroad. The process naturally varies in degree, but it is always at work.
