Horse censuses of 1882 and 1888 on the number and quality of horses in Russia

I would like to share a curious article on horse-breeding in the nineteenth century from the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary:.

Of the approximately 60,456,000 horses in the world, namely 32,253,400 in Europe, 4,125,400 in Asia, 656,000 in Africa, 20,909,000 in America and about 1,441,500 in Australia, more than 25,000,000 fell to Russia's share.

According to the horse census of 1882, the total number of horses in European Russia, excluding the Caucasus and Finland, was found to be more than 21,000,000, or 25.5 horses per 100 inhabitants, of which 19.3 were of working age, whereas in other European states there are from 2 to 17 horses, and only in the United States 24.3. But in the Samara, Orenburg and Astrakhan governorates this ratio of horses to population stands at 55. The smallest figures fall to the Vistula governorates: 16.2 and 10.2. The data of the horse census of 1888, which surveyed 41 governorates, showed that the entire stock of horses in those governorates was 12,675,657 head, and that the increase in the horse population there since the census of 1882 had been 619,758 head. The same censuses showed that of every 100 horses 58.1 stand at the withers below 1 arshin 14 vershoks, 28.0 between 1 arshin 14 vershoks and 2 arshins, and only 13.9 at 2 arshins and above (according to the census of 1888, 65.4% were undersized, i.e. 1 arshin 14 vershoks and below, and 34.6% full-sized, i.e. above 1 arshin 14 vershoks). Further, the same returns show that for 6,681,552 mares there are 696,346 stallions (according to the census of 1888, mares 45% and stallions 3.6%). Finally, that 86.9% of horses belong to the peasant population.

Although Russia is exceedingly rich in the number of its horses, the same cannot be said of their quality; in most localities horse-breeding is conducted in the most primitive manner, as a result of which the prevailing type is the Russian peasant horse, which in its build does not meet even the most modest requirements made of a working horse. But among its merits should be counted endurance, undemandingness in fodder, in general the ability to adapt to various conditions of keeping, and fitness at once for agricultural work and for hauling heavy loads over long distances, which must be taken into account when choosing the breed of sires for the improvement of the Russian working horse.

The text that follows tells of the problems of horse-breeding in Russia, why horses live so short a time, and how breeders spoil their animals.