Show A SHORTAGE NOT everyone owns a horse of course and not everyone expects to yet everybody Is interested in them that Is due to t I 1 the fact that until the auto came the horse really did more tor for us in the way of advancing our prosperity and our comfort than any 0 other ther member of the animal kingdom so when J 0 williams of the department ot of agriculture sends out the word that the shortage lof of workhorses in this country is becoming sei bellous lous estimates of all the horses and mules on farms arms the first of this year sh showed oweda a total ot of head EL a decline in work stock population ot of 17 per cent since 1920 it la is practically certain mr williams says that the next five years will show a reduction ot of the present number by 30 or 40 per cent although the average age of horses has increased considerably the average value during the past three years has not changed much the present low prices may not be expected to continue long as the increasing shortage is bound to turn it back the other way and high class work and saddle horses will in a lew few years bring the highest prices ever known the theory that the auto would replace the horse altogether was exploded long ago there will always be a demand lor for work horses because there are many kinds of 0 work that can be done better by horses than by motor power besides from purely sentimental reasons no one wants to see the horse wholly displaced it Is this sentiment now nationwide nation wide that makes the report of a horse shortage a matter of alarm |