nimportant.

Hence, from the strategical relations of the Cavalry Masses to the
rest of the Army there arises no particular reason to endeavour to
shorten their trains. If the heavy baggage of a Cavalry Division is
two and a half or five kilometres in length it is tolerably
immaterial, but it is imperative, as we have seen, that they should be
able to move and get out of the way. Hence, it is not the number of
waggons which concerns us, but their individual lightness and
mobility, so that on all roads they can follow their units at a trot,
and only in the case of Divisional Cavalry can the other point of view
be admitted.

The possibility must also not be overlooked that it may not always be
practical for Cavalry masses to fill up their supply columns direct
from the Army reserves; and to meet this, second echelons of waggons
will be required, in every degree as mobile as the first, and so
organized as to require a minimum escort for their safety.

For such escorts Cavalry Reservists and men of the Landwehr exist in
adequate numbers, and armed with a useful carbine and mounted on
horses, only as a means of locomotion, they will answer their purpose
well enough.

No matter, however, how ample the supply of these columns may be, or
how mobile, circumstances will still arise during periods of great
concentration in which it will be impossible to bring up supply
waggons in sufficient numbers. In these cases we require an emergency
horse ration, which within a small compass contains great nourishment.

Too much cannot be expected from such a ration; for instance, it
cannot be bulky enough to fill the animal's stomach. All that is
necessary is that it should be willingly eaten by the horses, keep
well, and be easily carried. It should contain about three times the
nutritive qualities, weight for weight, of oats, and should suffice to
keep horses in condition for three or four days in succession. These
demands are fairly satisfied by a food manufactured by Marck at
Darmstadt. It should be always carried in the field and replenished as
consumed, and with it even the most advanced patrols might be made
independent of requisitions, a matter which appears to me of the
greatest importance.

The fundamental condition of mobility being thus satisfied, the next
step will be to insure the technical and tactical independence of the
units under all circumstances which can be reasonably foreseen.

In this direction much has been