The value of the horses employed in the

The value of the horses employed in the

The value of the horses employed in the

The value of the horses employed in the actual labor of the country reaches a startling sum total.

The vast importance of the horse in the movement of business, was never so fully understood and deeply felt as during the year past, when the epizoötic swept over the continent, paralyzing all movement and every form of human industry. Even the ships that whiten the seas would furl their sails and steamers quench their fires but for the labors of the horse. During the epidemic the canal-boats waited idly for their patient tow-horses and railroads carried little freight; the crops of the West lay in the farmers' granaries and the fabrics of the Eastern loom and varied products of mechanical industry crowded the warehouses; even the ragpicker in the streets suspended his humble occupation, for the merchant, unable to transport rags, refused to buy them of the gatherer. The investment of national wealth in horses being so enormous, any means that adds to the efficiency of the horse greatly enhances the general prosperity.