The Jane report is as follows: Benton county reports 50 per cent of the colts foaled have died. Crawford and Sac counties report a few cases of glanders; Guthrie, Johnson, Lucas, Poweshiek, Scott and Shelby, distemper, and Pottawattamie county, many fatal cases of epizootic.

As sheep growing practically gave way to the raising of hogs, so the latter is being modified, and perhaps in the aggregate diminished by horse-raising. Breeding, raising, importing, buying and selling horses is a prominent talk topic, and a fecund subject of newspaper writing. The business of raising horses for shipment out of the State has assumed large proportions. The stride toward a heavier breed of horses is evident. In certain localities the price of colts under three years exceed that of horses over that age. The crossing of imported stallions with native mares is greatly improving the stock. The American Horse Show of 1888 was the best on record, and is a forcible demonstration of the rapid growth made in this department of farm industry. There was a more uniform excellence in all the departments, and this is a plain token of the general advance. The natural increase of horses in Iowa is 240,000. It is estimated that 180,000 of these are the product of unregistered sires. This condition will not continue for a long time. People will not buy, neither will farmers use this indifferent stock, so soon as they see something better. Any issue of any stock journal will indicate that there are studious, careful, intelligent men, who make journeys across the sea and bring back. with them the best product of foreign lands. It would be insidious to mention names; all have done wisely and well; and to their credit must be placed the honor of bringing up the standard of Iowa horses to its present degree of excellence. It is not yet what it can be. Standing on the corners of any of the towns and cities of Iowa, one would not be especially impressed with the teams which the farmers drive to wagons or carriages. But they are largely better than they were some years ago, and the improvement goes on. When it is understood that a home of Percheron or Clydesdale, a Cleveland Bay or what else is worth fifty dollars more than one gotten by a horse not registered, then the 180,000 scrub colts will be represented by 180,000 colts having a strain of pure blood.

There have been but few diseases among horses. In April distemper was reported from nineteen counties; glanders from two, and pinkeye from one. Add this to the statement at the beginning of this section, and perhaps it will embrace all the trouble there was from disease. Distemper is a comprehensive term, and is applied to all ailments resulting from cold.

The statistics from Jefferson county may be suggestive as to what was done in other counties. In January and February twenty-six car loads were shipped out of the county; total shipment, 520 head; average price, C15 per head, or $59,800 paid for horses for shipment in sixty days. Buyers came from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, South Carolina, Massachusetts and Nebraska.

There will ever be plenty of room, and a remunerative market for horses. Some thought the advent of railroads would dispense with the use of horses. The railroads created the necessity for more horses and better ones. Some think to-day that the electric motor will make the raising of horses less profitable. Electric batteries take the place of horses on street railways from Paris, France, to Des Moines, Iowa; but the demand for good horses steadily increases; the prices go up higher and higher, and with all the aids to locomotion by steam and electricity, the horse is in regular demand. What with the finest grasses in this meridian; with a soil producing untold harvests of corn and oats, with a climate unequalled in all the essential elements of the best growth and development of live stock of all kinds there is no reason why the steady improvement of horses should not be made a permanent industry of the farm.

Iowa stands third in the list in number of horses, having 1,003,022, exceeded by Texas by only 219,781, and Illinois by only 66,817. In value of horses Illinois is first, Iowa second, New York third, Ohio fourth and Texas tenth.

Iowa's horses are worth $74,032,082 or $2,132,108 greater than her cattle interest. We have 45,649 mules, worth $3,936,540 more.

The number of pedigreed draft stock in 1885 was 3,234. The number has been largely increased in these past three years. It is reported that sixteen new importers have entered the field in 1888. An attempt was made to get the exact number imported into Iowa in this year, but the returns are imperfect. Yet enough has been gained to show that this greatest of all stock industry will bring Iowa ere many moons to the front rank in number and excellence of her horses. The reports give 619 imported, at a value of $674,400. The highest reported investment by any one person is $200,000.

Imports of horses for fiscal year ending June, 30, 1888 is 10,378; value, $2,729,70 or $263 per head. Exports, 2,263; value, $412,744, or $183 per head

The number of horses carried eastward from Iowa during the years 1887 and 1888, are reported through these sources.