The Percheron horse

by Charles Du Hays

OF THE MEANS OF REGENERATING THE PERCHERON HORSE.

Perche, in order to retain its best customers, and not drop to a level with the common herd of horse-breeders, must at once have recourse to systematic means of improvement. Her breeders have shown a deplorable alacrity in the downward course, which has brought upon them the depreciation in the value of their stock, of which they begin to perceive the effects.

“Facilis descensus Averno;

Sed revocare gradum,

Hoc opus, hic labor est!”

Unanimity of will and unity of means are both necessary to accomplish the ascent, and regain the position which the breed has lost. Two measures present themselves as each essential in accomplishing this result. The first step is to restore the disturbed equilibrium by a well-planned and uninterrupted series of crosses, effected within the breed. This would arrest the evil. The second step should be, subsequently, to breed up by improving crosses, practised with a wise and circumspect deliberation. This would be making progress.

At the very outset, and continued parallel with this course of breeding, a Stud-book should be instituted, in order that all thus subjected to systematic improvement should be brought together, and thus initiate a general improvement of the breed. The development of these ideas will furnish matter for the following chapters.

CHAPTER I.
REGENERATION OF THE PERCHERON BREED.

There are two ways of crossing applicable to any breed, both of which have had their earnest partisans. So much clamor has been made about them, I think, only because they have been simultaneously used and often mingled, and the results have been deranged by their use. This might have been avoided by commencing with the simplest and continuing with the best.

The first may be called the renewal of a breed within itself, or interbreeding; the second, improving by foreign blood. We will pass them rapidly in review, trying to reach in the results the solid basis of truth.

CHAPTER II.
REGENERATION OF THE BREED THROUGH ITSELF, OR BY SELECTION.

The first manner, also called selection, consists in making, among the race itself, a rational, judicious choice of the most perfect types; those which are as free as possible from the most prominent defects of the breed; those which best recall the primitive type, if it possess the superior qualities which it is required to reproduce; those which, healthy and vigorous, seem to have among themselves the most affinity. This choice ought to be severe and rigorous, nor should we be discouraged by the small number of the elect.

From the issue of this first selection, make a similar choice, and with them and their progeny march perseveringly in the same way, without ever looking to the right or to the left—that is to say, without ever listening to advice which would modify the work commenced, or to praises which might induce the desire for too rapid results. To proceed too fast is perhaps a still greater error than to stop on the way, inasmuch as it often renders a retrograde movement obligatory and reduces to nothing the results of several years of success.

It is indispensable that the selections from which a good progeny is desired should be completely grown—that is to say, the horses should be at least four years past, and the mares fully three years old.

Sell, without remorse, to the trade the least successful types, and most carefully keep the good. The horses, after serving some campaigns in their adult age, can be sold without inconvenience; a few well-proved types are sufficient for a district. But never part with the mares when they are remarkable for their conformation, temper, aptitude to work, and for their qualities as breeders.

Thus, in order to keep the breeders clear of temptations which are always dangerous, and as a good means of guidance, prizes become a question of life or death for the future of the race. It is, in fact, by means of prizes and rewards, liberally distributed for the class of mares of three to ten years inclusively, that they can be kept in the region. It is by awarding the prize at three years, after they have been covered, in paying at first but one-half of the prize and the remainder only after they have foaled and have been again covered, that they can be virtually controlled. After ten years, as they no longer meet with either a good or profitable sale, special encouragement may cease. Moreover, the breeder who during eight years has received in prizes a sum often superior to the money value of his mare, and recognizing that he possesses in her a brood-mare of merit, will no longer commit the folly of parting with her for a price which would be ridiculous.

There is such extreme delicacy in the manner of distributing these prizes, that I scarcely dare refer to it.

The members of the council-board, who have the appropriation for the prizes, should have naturally and rightfully the honor of awarding them. I would then wish, that in each district (what I am about to say excludes the public fairs, in which a jury, numerous, and consequently never unanimous in opinion, opposes the execution of a uniform idea), the council-board and the council of the district, charged at the same time with the establishment of the Stud-book, of which I will speak in a separate chapter, should be willing to accept this mission, which they would perform with the aid of the inspector-general of the Stud-stables. Each year, by their care, the mares of a district would be scrupulously examined and classed for the prize.

These premiums should be granted for eight years, to the best three-year-old fillies, to which this distinction would give the entrance upon the Stud-book. In the first year of the establishment of this book, destined to contain the genealogical documents relative to the celebrities of the race, the mares above three years, which have been found worthy to be inscribed, should be likewise given prizes, and this same should be allowed them as a pension up to the age of ten years.

These inducements should be annual, and kept up as long as the prize-mare is kept as a breeder and in proper condition, that is to say, sound of wind, and exempt from the glanders. Other blemishes, the natural consequence of work and age, might be tolerated.

Following the same system and conditions, similar prizes should be awarded to stallions, without paying attention to rewards which they may have received from other quarters. But as the resources of which a department disposes, augmented even by private contributions, are not inexhaustible, it is urgent that the prizes, always liberal and remunerative, being from two to four hundred francs for mares, and from four to eight hundred francs for stallions, should be accorded only to specimens of real merit. Quality, when it effects the regeneration of a race, is always preferable to quantity.

It is, especially, necessary to excite earnest breeders by all possible means, to preserve or to buy remarkable Percherons, presenting in their form and character the type of the stallion. And, if the prizes of four to eight hundred francs, of which we have just asked the institution, should not appear to the authorities of the departments a sufficient means to impart the necessary impulse for the complete success of this measure, the departments might themselves buy some remarkable types, and either use them, themselves, in gratuitously serving the finest mares, or in confiding them to good farmers, in whose hands they would be given the prize and used almost for nothing, as long as their health permitted them to be profitably kept. After a certain number of years these stallions might even become the property of their keepers, or they might, from the beginning, be granted them at reduced prices, with the obligation, on the one side, that they should be used with judgment and preserved with care, and on the other side, with the promise of a largely remunerative prize. Love of gain has driven the peasant to strip himself of everything he owned that was good; it now belongs to the authorities, by the incentive of gain, to induce this same peasant to pursue a wiser course.

Oppose as much as possible the use of stallions before fully four years old, and the fillies being put to breeding before reaching their third year. This can only be attained by giving the prize, in the class of fillies, to such as have been served at the age of three years, by stallions of at least four years old.

Crossing by selection has numerous advocates, and from all time, the best-informed, the most practical men, have been unanimous in proclaiming that blood is only preserved and improved by blood—that is to say, by selection. It is easy and not expensive, inasmuch as the necessary subjects are always at hand; it is natural, inasmuch as its simplicity is apparent to every mind. And, if it does not bring the rapid results so pleasing to those too eager for profit, it is, at least, always sure. For, without giving at first exceptional results, it never fails in its effects, by reason of the affinity existing between the different individuals, and by reason especially of their perfect conformity with the climate and soil. In fact, this conformity is not an indifferent matter, and it has been found by experience that animals, noted upon their native soil for their sureness in reproducing, and for the invariable transmission of their qualities to their descendants, frequently fail in these respects when imported into another country. Often, several years roll by before they recover that equilibrium of health and that tranquillity of animal functions, which permit them to reproduce in a sure, equal, and fixed manner, without which an improvement in the type cannot take place.

Selection has long been practiced in Perche, and it has there produced for a long time the best results, which were interfered with only by the importation from Picardy, Caux, and Boulogne, of animals of inferior blood.

Among the bovine species, we have curious examples of the value of selection, especially those furnished in Cotentin, where a breed exists the finest, best, and the most sought after in France. Crossing with foreign blood, which fashion, at one date or another, had wished to prescribe, has always been forbidden as a crime in this country. It is thus that the finest herds of La Manche, and especially those of M. Mannoury of Canisy near Saint-Lô have been formed. The success of this breeder began at Ebisey near Caen, where he commenced a few years ago and where the stock can be easily examined.

A bull of the Cotentin race, the most perfect and best bred that could be found, put to heifers of the same breed, chosen among the finest types, was the starting point officially recorded. Selection, operating upon this progeny, as it had operated in the beginning, was continued without intermission, and, by these means it has produced a herd all the members of which are alike and constantly transmitting identical qualities.

CHAPTER III.
CONSANGUINITY.

Conjugal consanguinity has neither partisans nor friends. The physiologist, physician, priest, and legislator, have always launched against it the same anathema. All, in making war against it, knew that it was the surest method of establishing a fixed and permanent race; but, all, preoccupied in seeking a means of universal fusion, thought they had found in the prohibition of this a leveler destined to equalize everything.

It was feared that certain families would become too individualized, too marked in their tendencies; and all, without acknowledging it, endeavored to close a way which might lead to the engrossment of fortunes.

Close interbreeding, in the horse, has not the same political inconveniences; this is clearly apparent; but with us, the desire to legislate upon and regulate everything, reducing all to a common level, has prevailed. Equine consanguinity has not, any more than the other, found favor.

ANTHONY.

One fact, however, strikes any one at the outset who has studied the equine races, followed, step by step, their progeny, and made himself acquainted with their performances. This fact is:

If a horse is remarkable over all others in one of the three following ways: personal beauty, high qualities, or sureness of reproduction; go back boldly to his origin, and you will find yourself, at each step, face to face with close interbreeding—that is to say, the reforming of a race by means of itself, the result of great qualities increased by drafts made at the source of a generous blood.

The thoroughbred race in England, which has been formed but with a very limited number of primitive agents, and which, consequently, soon became consanguine, has anew, and at two distinct epochs, absorbed in every degree and repeatedly the blood of two famous groups, represented, the first by Byerly Turk, Darley Arabian, and Godolphin Arabian; the second, by Matchem, Herod, and Eclipse. At the present moment, it maintains itself, thanks to a universal consanguinity, and everything good which exists, by going back inevitably to these sole progenitors, now forms but one and the same family. Magnificent results have come from these alliances, and every day it can be proved that this blood has not degenerated.

It is the same in all breeding countries, and it has been shown, (for proofs see the journal “La vie à la campagne”, of the 30th November, 1863), that especially in Merlerault, the nursery of the fine French breeds, everything exceptionally good which exists, or which has existed, is the result of consanguinity—that is, “in-and-in breeding.”

The following is the conclusion of the author of this note:

These examples (the pedigrees of the best horses), collected with care, will perhaps bring upon me the accusation of being a partisan of in-and-in breeding. In principle, I condemn its absolute use; but, within certain limits, I admit and advise it, especially in the commencement, when it becomes a question of founding and establishing a family designed to exercise a permanent influence upon the future improvement of a region.

Uniting together vices of conformation, character, and temperament, is rendering them indelible for ever. Uniting quality, beauty, and aptitude, it is preserving the monopoly of these in a single family.

Hence, I would like, when there appeared, on the turf or elsewhere, one of those envied types of which nature is generally so sparing, that judicious attempts, made with patience, should fix the qualities so apt to disappear, and collect, so to speak, all the sources whence they emanate.

The brothers, sisters, and collaterals, should be included, but once only, in these crossings, which might even go back, if it were still time, as far as the grandsires and dams, on account of the resemblance noticed between ancestors and their grandchildren.

Finally, the truly valuable and completely successful results of a family thus strengthened should be coupled according to the rules of intelligent crossing to the equally confirmed representatives of some other excellent family, fit to form new offspring.

CHAPTER IV.
OUGHT THE GRAY COLOR OF THE PERCHERON TO BE INFLEXIBLY MAINTAINED?

Formerly I liked the gray horse very much, and have more than once praised this color. But time has dissipated my illusions.

Thus, while acknowledging my former preferences for the gray horse over the horse of a different shade, I am now very far from showing myself exclusive, and quarreling with the mass of enlightened persons who seem desirous of adopting the dark colored coats. I only desire one thing, and that is to save the Percheron race, and to preserve to Perche its prosperity and its glory.

If I have liked the gray horse, it was from conviction, and not to court those who saw no safety outside the gray. But when the wisdom and the extreme intelligence of masters of science, preferring a less showy color, demonstrated to me that Perche might find an era of new glory and prosperity in changing the coat of its horse and thus enlarging the circle of consumption, I bowed meekly to their opinion. I liked the gray horse because I thought that Providence had created it gray in order that it might be able to withstand, during its work, the heat of the sun, and not be prostrated under its rays. I liked it gray, as the Arab likes his horse gray and his bournous of a whitish color; as the American planter likes his white cotton suit and his panama; as our soldier, in the field, liked, under the African or Mexican sky, the havelock which protected him against the rays of the burning luminary. I liked it gray because it seemed to me to recall more than any other the Arab, the primitive horse; because Perche having always possessed gray horses, I thought there was much more chance of finding, under this coat, the type of the country; because I had been rocked to sleep to the tune of that old ballad of our ancestors, celebrating Charles de Trie, the Percheron Seigneur, going forth to combat the English at the battle of Poitiers:

“On charger white

The sire of Trie

Against the foe

Has gone to war,” etc. etc.;

because, in a word, during my infancy, I had breathed the dust of the old manuscripts making mention of the white Percheron mares. I liked it gray, because, for the service of the post-coaches and couriers, in their long stages, in the middle of the night, the gray horse appeared to me more easy to guide than the horse of a dark color. Finally, it has always seemed to me that this coat was more becoming than any other the powerful form of a vigorous worker. Does not a good-looking, stalwart, and honest peasant please you better—is he not infinitely more at ease with the Gallic blouse covering his broad shoulders, than under the dark folds of a fashionable coat, which makes him appear awkward and abashed?

But everything is much changed. The country has no longer any special type in the midst of all this gray amalgamated with Brittany, Picardy, and Caux, of which the equine stock of Perche is now composed. If the Percheron should cease to be bound by this law of gray, if he should become of all shades, at the same time remaining good, and such as Perche knows how to make him, he would cease to be dishonored by those everlasting plagiarists, shamelessly calling themselves Percherons because they happen to be gray and have travelled across the Perche country. If he should become of all shades, in preserving the qualities and movement which are a feature of everything that the tonic grasses and the fine and vivifying air of Perche produces, he would not be reduced to the simple role of furnishing the 6,000 or 7,000 horses that the omnibuses and teamsters each year require, plus the 600 or 700 typical ones that foreign countries demand of Perche. He might, little by little, contribute to the satisfaction of the half-fancy and to the wants of the hunting and army equipages; he might advantageously replace the German horse, which we are obliged to employ in want of a better. Post-coaches no longer existing, there is no longer need of gray horses for the night in the midst of the darkness of the highways. Steam machinery, the indispensable substitute for the lack of human hands in the country, being destined to execute, in part, the labors of agriculture, the horse will be less employed there, and the one that will be called for, having fewer difficulties to overcome, can be lighter, more distingué, faster, and more fit for adaptation to the exigences of trade and fashion.—Finally, Fashion wishing, positively, no more gray horses, and the Percheron finding no longer a sufficient employment in the omnibuses, will soon find himself in a tight place if he do not take a fresh start, and make himself acceptable—if he do not conform to the exactions of the age, and become more stylish and darker colored.

It is settled, then, that he must put upon his back a less showy covering; but he can only do this on condition that he become, thanks to good crossings, more presentable and have a more stylish air. And, really, what is more ridiculous than a vulgar and common beast decked out with the livery of the fancy and private horse!

Let us occupy ourselves, then, seriously in looking up breeding stock of dark coats; the time to do this appears to me to have come. But where will we go to find them? Let us look about us and seek for this in Perche.

If you there find, under a dark coat, a fine Percheron, possessing all the qualities and specialties of the race, make haste, take him and color your horses. Sincerely, I give you this advice. Still, as in the present state of things, it is rare that the fine and the somber are met with together among the working races, by reason of the horror which has been professed, up to the present moment, for everything not gray, the best expedient would be to color the coat by means of fine, dark skin Arabs, or with good, well-chosen Norfolks, a subject that we will treat upon in the chapter of crossings. As to doing it otherwise, it is not to be thought of, the elements not existing in Perche.

This, however, is only a minor matter. The essential point is to unite the heavy to the distingué, weight to gait, mildness to vigor, hardiness to energetic temperament, steadiness and precocity; in a word, to repeat myself for the hundredth time, add a little more dash and style. Correct the defects of conformation, the imperfections of color, without weakening, without breaking up the harmony of the admirable qualities which have made of the Percheron the first horse of the age.

CHAPTER V.
PRESERVE PURE, AND WITHOUT INTERMIXTURE, THE THREE TYPES OF THE PERCHERON RACE—THE LIGHT HORSE, THE DRAFT HORSE, THE INTERMEDIATE HORSE.

We have spoken, in Chapter II, Part First, of the three types which the Percheron race presents—the light horse, the draft horse, and the intermediate or post horse. These three breeds come of the soil and are the product of ancient crosses. There is reason for their existing and for their marked peculiarities; and reason requires, then, that they should be preserved, and, in maintaining them always in their proper functions, we obey, in that progressive spirit which urges us to embellish everything. The first is destined to become the post horse and horse for private use, the surest and most agreeable means of locomotion. The second cannot be replaced for express carting, and for the builders and contractors of Paris and other large towns. To the third, the omnibuses always offer a steady market. Consequently, it is important to keep them without intermixture and to continue them uninterruptedly each in its respective class. Hence in seeking to add weight to a class it is necessary to avoid crossing it with a race superior in height, and different in conformation and temperament.

The heaviest and strongest of a class, united among themselves, will produce more surely the kind demanded than a too precipitate crossing. Nothing is more risky than crosses made without judgment. It is by them that harmony of form is destroyed, and a degenerate mongrel race is produced as the inevitable consequence. It is then important, in the reunion of types, never to lose sight of equality and similarity of conformation and qualities. But, at the same time, it is necessary to march with the age, study its tendencies, and be always ready to guide a movement which otherwise might drag you in its wake.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the services required of the Percheron horse are not the same as formerly. The omnibus service, especially, which, scarcely ten years ago, was considered the mildest, has, at present, become the hardest, and the one which requires heavy horses, uniting speed with strength.

On the other hand, as a consequence of the great changes in the life and means of conveyance of the wealthy, the Percheron race has been most prominently brought forward. Almost all ranks of the upper classes have now adopted the Percheron horse of the light kind for their private uses, hunts and drives in the country. The fondness for rapid traveling rendering these classes more exacting than formerly, the necessity has arisen of finding in Perche, specimens with weight and speed with a light and stylish form. Accordingly, it becomes necessary to find means of adding the greatest possible speed to the other valuable characteristics of the Percheron horse. To reach this result promptly, we should have recourse to the Arabian stallion, and this, surely, would be the quickest means. But as I do not find this Percheron race, in its present state, sufficiently prepared for this alliance, and as I think that it still needs two or three generations of preparatory crossings with itself, it will be necessary to commence, in order to attain this end, by close interbreeding.

We should, at first, commence by exploring the Percheron centers devoted exclusively to the rearing of mares, and, in these places, we should particularly visit the localities in which they have no great development as to height. Here we would select a group of from fifteen to twenty fillies, the best, the finest limbed, the most compact, the fastest trotters, and having for an extreme maximum the height of 15½ to 16 hands.

The same course should be pursued in the regions where the colts are raised, and there choice should be made of some light stallions, approaching, as much as possible, to the mares in form and qualities.

All the best foals, then, should be in their turn subjected to couplings conducted with the same care, and among the third generation would be found types sufficiently confirmed, either as founders of a race among themselves, or for crossing with the Arab, of which we will speak in the following chapter.

If a little larger size be required, it would not be necessary to have recourse to other types than those which I have just indicated. Well-balanced horses favor every modification. More tonic, substantial nourishment, and more fertile meadows would increase the height and weight, as well as the strength and spirit.

Do you desire omnibus horses?—You can obtain them by selecting in the regions which best produce the post-horse, the strongest types, the heaviest bodied, the most favored as to height, and the fastest trotters. But never yield any of these three points: weight, spirit, and speed.

The animals the nearest alike in size and form should then be coupled together, after the manner indicated above, and when weight, spirit, and speed, are found without failing in all the progeny, it will then be time, but not till then, to add style. The Arabian stallion, whose tendency, as we will see later, is to produce heavier and stronger than himself, while at the same time imparting his mark of supreme distinction, might then be introduced to embellish and confirm our good results.

The heavy draft and the express wagon horses should have weight: this is a sine qua non condition; but it would be a great mistake to confine ourselves exclusively to mere size. They should possess powerful limbs and muscles, joined to great spirit. This crossing, although the easiest, would also present great dangers should we be satisfied with weight alone; we would soon arrive at the mere lymphatic horse. It is, therefore, urgent, for the breeds possessing requisite strength, to choose those which are the most distingué, the most nervous, the finest limbed, and the most spirited, and to avoid the sluggish and lymphatic. These will be found in the elevated and dry centers, where the food is plenty and nutritious.

If Perche proper, Beauce, and the environs of Chateaudun, should not be capable of furnishing their complete contingent in this specialty (as I believe they cannot,) some good specimens could be met with among the Percheron colts raised in the environs of Bernay and on the plains of Sens.

This variety (the draft-horse) demands a great deal less care in the choice of the dams and sires. It is infinitely more elementary, since weight is principally sought after. Still, it is well, even indispensable, to select individuals short coupled and with good quarters, to hold out under the enormous loads they are obliged to draw. The means resorted to to accomplish this are judicious crosses, constantly made with a well-determined and always identical idea, tending to increase weight and strength, while preserving spirit and vigor, abundant nourishment, and breeding in those sections naturally most propitious to style and size. Soon, Perche, placed in a situation without a rival for the present, and, above all, for the future, might forever avoid asking any thing of foreign crossings. For though the choice of the stallion and the mare is so important in the production of the foal, the climate, the kind of food, the agricultural habits, and, finally, the adaptation of the region to horse breeding, are of a great deal more importance in the development of the animal. It becomes, then, somewhat difficult to indicate accurately to what types, in such particular cases, the preference should be awarded. The best are those which most nearly meet the wants of the section.

CHAPTER VI.
IMPROVEMENT OF THE BREED BY MEANS OF FOREIGN CROSSINGS.

However, if with strength acquired and faults corrected, style is not attained, it may be sought after by judicious crosses with well-chosen foreign types.

Two different breeds present themselves to us as means of improving our stock by the introduction of foreign blood: the Arabian, and the English, with its variations. Starting from this point, let us study both and endeavor to discover, by analogy, which one would best suit, or, rather, which one is the least unfavorable to the purpose.

I will examine, one after another, these two methods in detail, leaving to the cultivator, who is most interested in the question, the choice of employing that which seems to him the best and the most appropriate, taking into view the fertility and the nature of his section. But I must, from the beginning, lay down as a principle that both are more expensive than is interbreeding. A race to become fit to receive a foreign cross, should be prepared for it in advance, in order to shorten, as much as possible, the distance existing between the breed so formed and proved and that which we seek to create.

In fact, the foreign cross can do no good, unless the desired qualities in the race upon which it is made are permanent, fixed, and characteristic.

Why not think also of increasing our resources by better cultivation, by liberal feeding, by choosing, as I have said above, among the race of the country, the most perfect types and those most likely to correct what is vicious while they impart their own good qualities? Methods of this kind, pursued for a long time and persistently, are alone capable of preparing, without inconvenience, for a foreign cross.

Drain your wet meadows, irrigate your hill-sides, fertilize your soil by the use of improving manures, make productive fields everywhere, create meadows, grow heavy oats, enlarge your stables and make them clean, healthy and airy. When you have done this, then, but not before, you can cross your races with foreign blood, more delicate than yours and accustomed to and requiring greater care and attention.

I know that this slowly progressive manner does not possess the sympathies of those who, at the commencement, are restless at not having already reached the goal. But it is sure and free from errors, whilst the other, (France has but too many examples of this), after money squandered and years wasted, reduces the breeder who has recourse to it to a more miserable condition than that from which he wished to escape.

Our furia francese, which renders us, irresistible in war, our fancy for new fashions, which gives birth to those wonders which the world hails with ecstacy, and our proverbial inconstancy, cause us almost always to go astray in breeding. Fashion has no sooner praised horses of such and such a race, of this or that model, or such and such a coat, than we must immediately produce the like, without first ascertaining whether or no our race be prepared for crossing with them. The result of such crosses would be about as valuable as a discussion between a fishwoman and an academician!

Nature, left to herself, is a thousand times more intelligent than the man of systems. Are there ever found, among the wild animals, among lions, tigers, stags, chamois, etc., either spavins, tumors, periodical inflammations, or any of those thousand infirmities with which our domestic horse is afflicted?—And here is the reason: in the rutting season, the possession of the females becomes the incitement to bloody battles. It is always the strongest, the most vigorous, the bravest, the most venturesome, and the best made stallion, which receives as a reward for his victory, the submission and the admiring love of the harem.

But I assume Perche prepared, by numerous and good crossings of the race within itself, to try, with more sureness, foreign crossings. Two principal types, as we have just seen, are presented for this: the Arab type and the English, which is itself derived from the Arab.

The foreign cross I only speak of with diffidence, because with it I enter unknown regions of inductions and perhaps, alas! into ways of deception and ruin, if it is not effected with the greatest prudence and judgment.

Foreign crossings, systematically effected from the north to the south, and from the south to the north, have had Buffon for their apostle, and, under the cloak of his genius, and thanks to the authority of his word, they have reached everywhere. But how enumerate the evils brought about by a school, whose disciples are still numerous, thanks to a perseverance irritated but not deterred by failure? These evils have been branded in large characters on all our breeds, since that day when they became the objects, not of constant and uniform care, but considered as subjects of no consequence, upon which individuals might experiment in order to test their theories, and set themselves up as teachers.

Since then, we have no more types properly belonging to distinct districts, but a confused assembly, combining with rare qualities the defects of this or that cross and twenty others more. Everywhere in turn, from one region or another, were stallions employed of different types and races: those of the south transported to the north, and those of the north to the south; and that without preparation, and without attention to the differences of soil and climate of the various regions. All these practices have injured our breeds without successfully retaining their own native qualities.

CHAPTER VII.
THE ARAB CROSSING.

I commence with the Arab crossing. Two motives have induced me to follow this classification:

1st. The Arabian is the type horse, and the type should be examined before its derivatives.

2nd. The Percheron shows a very great analogy, by his coat, conformation, character of race, mild disposition, and endurance, to the Arab, of which he seems to be the son, notwithstanding certain differences, the result of time, climate, and the region in which he is bred and in which he lives.

I have said that the Percheron horse exhibits in common with the Arab numerous marks of a common parentage and relationship: these marks are very obvious. A Percheron, a true Percheron, for some still exist, (as the famous Toulouse of M. Chéradame, of Ecouché; and the renowned Jean-le-Blanc of M. Miard, of Villers, near Sap, in the department of the Orne, etc., etc.,) placed alongside of an Arab, presents, notwithstanding his heavier and grosser form, analogies with him so striking that we are easily induced to believe them undoubted relations.

The Percheron of the primitive type has a gray coat like the Arab; and like him an abundant and silky mane, a fine skin, and a large, prominent, and expressive eye; a broad forehead, dilated nostrils, and a full and deep chest, although, the girth, with him, as with the Arab, is always lacking in fullness; more bony and leaner limbs, and less covered with hair than those of other draft-horse families.

He has not, it is true, the fine haunch and fine form of the shoulder, nor that swan-like neck which distinguishes the Arab; but it must not be forgotten that for ages he has been employed for draft purposes, and these habits have imparted to his bony frame an anatomical structure, a combination of levers adapted to the work he is called upon to perform. He has not, I again acknowledge, such a fine skin as the Arab, nor his prettily rounded, oval, and small foot; but we must remember the fact that he lives under a cold climate, upon elevated plains, where nature gives him for a covering a thicker skin and a warmer coat, and that he has been for ages stepping upon a moist, clayey soil.

In all that remains in him, we recognize a heavy Arab, modified and remodeled by climate and peculiar circumstances. He has remained mild and laborious, like his sire; he is brought up, like him, in the midst of the family, and, like him, he possesses in a very high degree the faculty of easy acclimation. He acquires this in the midst of the numerous migrations he accomplishes in Perche, the counterpart of those that the type horse makes upon the sands of the desert. A final comparison, which has not, as yet, been sufficiently noticed, is, that, like the Arab, he has no need of being mutilated in order to be trained, managed and kept without danger. In a word, the Percheron, notwithstanding the ages which separate them, presents an affinity as close as possible with the primitive horse, which is the Arab.

From this similarity of form and probable relationship, comes the thought of new alliances. But in order to form a more easy estimate of their effects, it will not be without interest to classify the horses with reference to their origin. This classification produces three very distinct groups: the primitive horse, the natural horse, and the compound horse.

The Primitive Horse, oriental in its origin, is the pure Arabian horse; no other is acknowledged.

During the time of the crusaders, as we have already said in our first part, in consequence of wars and all kinds of excursions, individuals of this race were spread over almost all parts of the globe. Although at first the prestige which their superior merits deserved led to their being bred in-and-in, these exiles were placed under different latitudes, in different atmospheric and hygienic conditions, which gradually modified their qualities and led to the degeneracy of the race. And it became more or less degenerate in proportion as the soil upon which the colts were foaled was colder, poorer, and more inhospitable; for the horse is as much, and more, the son of the soil upon which he is foaled and reared as he is of his sire and dam.

This fact has no need of proof. We see it every day before our eyes in studying at home the changes that our French breeds themselves undergo when transported from one province to another. It might, however, be thought that these new latitudes, these new regions, would differ but little from those in which they lived.

The first change that the primitive horse undergoes, from the difference of the regions into which he has been transplanted, being due to nature itself, we call the result the Natural Horse.—Here it is proper to remark how wise nature always is. If it modify the primitive horse for the worse, it modifies him, however, under conditions better adapted to his wants. In rendering him more puny, it renders him more temperate, and enables him to live and to nourish himself upon the food that the locality is able to furnish. Submitted to the trials and the fatigues of war, and to all the miseries in its train, the natural horse, badly built, ungainly and puny as he is, endures fatigue almost as well as the primitive horse.

The Cross-bred Horse is, as his name indicates, the issue of a sire and dam of different breeds. This crossing, made with a view to improvement, may give, when judicious, more elegant, better made, and finer-bodied progeny and also quicker in their various gaits, but always requiring, especially if derived from the English, exceptional care, and so much the more particular as they are of a more distingué nature.

Abandoned to himself, deprived of blankets, shelter, grooming, and oats, the cross-bred deteriorates early, and in war perishes miserably, while the natural and the primitive horse thrives in browsing upon the scantiest herbage. On this score, our two campaigns of the Crimea and Italy have furnished unquestionable proofs.

Such is the result chiefly obtained with the too distingué English horse, even when delivered to the best working mares. In the army, especially, is this point settled; they have there recognized and proved that the worst subjects were always the issue of authors having too much blood and too impressionable. No horses are more apt than these to provoke and render ill humored, and, if I may so speak, ruin the temper of the men placed over them.

When a working race is crossed with the English, it is indispensable that the stallion should be well bred and be but a quarter blood,—a quarter at the utmost. And the manner of balancing the blood is neither an indifferent thing nor a thing to be neglected. We should be very careful not to accept as such the product of a full-blooded or even half-blooded stallion and a common mare, but should rather take the product, ameliorated through generations, of strong races that have been gradually perfected, such as, for instance, certain Norfolk horses, certain roadsters and trotters, of which old Juggard was a type, and of which Performer, although not so marked, vaguely recalled the memory.

Since I have mentioned the name of Norfolk, let me say, that after the Arab race, of all the foreign ones, the Norfolk trotter is the one which seems to me to offer the greatest advantages in an alliance with the Percheron. With both, good qualities and defects are diverse, so that they can complete and correct each other by means of a wisely combined and carefully studied connection.

The Norfolk horse has, it is true, an ugly head, and his eye is small and destitute of expression; but his neck, with good lines, starts well from his breast; his shoulder is fine and well-sloped; his chest magnificent, and his girth enormous; his loins broad, well-sustained and well-attached; his haunches long, his croup horizontal; his buttocks well filled out and low; and his limbs strong, but not quite free enough from fat; nor is his action always sufficiently stylish, yet he has a quick and free gait.

Give to this horse a mare having a fine and expressive head, lighted up with a large, intelligent, well-opened eye; let her possess lean, elegant, and perfect limbs, and, a hundred to one, you will get a valuable colt. But, with the Norfolk, as with all others, there are degrees, and if I cross the Channel in search of a stock horse, I should wish him to possess the following qualities:

This stallion should be rather large, have thick and strong limbs, chest fully developed, the girth as great as possible, very heavy in the hind-quarters, buttocks descending well, forehead broad and open, and the eye large and expressive. He should be always shorter in height than the mares, but quite as broad, and, I repeat it, as short-limbed as possible, on account of an invariable, innate tendency of the English horse to height and thinness. He should be neither cross, nor, above all, affected with that nervous sensitiveness too common in the English breeds. His action should be quick, well kept up, bold and square. He should have, if possible, a decided and well-pronounced color, either a dark bay or a chestnut. Breeding stock of his get should be chosen under identical conditions, and then they would be on a footing with him, although, logically speaking, there would be always an inclination to prefer the type to the sub-type.

But, at present, it is easy to be deceived, even in England, in regard to the stock of the country. There is less risk in using, if he can be found, a good, heavy Anglo-Norman horse, bred and reared under our eyes in Merlerault or on the plains of Alençon, than a spurious English one, which is often none other than a forlorn hope of some nameless region. In fact, from certain appearances, there is reason to fear that persons from the other side of the Channel visit the continent to do a smart thing, and purchase heavy, lymphatic colts to bring up on some English farm, and then resell them as Norfolk horses. What kind of improvement is to be expected from such means? We should always respect the will of nature, which allows us to assist her in her course, but we should never violate her laws.

Man vainly wishes to force nature with all these crosses, at which she takes exceptions. To all this so-called science she opposes her relentless logic; these products are an unnatural brood, which she refuses to acknowledge as her own. She stops short, and, no matter how good these results may appear in themselves, the error crops out, and it is known by experience that they almost all fail when put to the test of breeding.

But suppose every measure of prudence taken, even suppose there has been no mistake, most of the produce resulting from this first crossing will be, generally, lighter built than their dams. However, among the number there will be found some which, uniting weight to beauty, will constitute good types with athletic and regular forms. The latter only should be preserved, and these only can be usefully employed, either among themselves or outside of their own families, in the improvement of our stock.

At the second crossing, the imperfections observed at the first will disappear in a great measure, and from the third crossing, with constant care, unflinching attention, and unwearied patience, the difficult problem will be solved: size combined with vigor, hardiness of constitution with style, and weight with elegance.

If, on the contrary, by wishing to make too quick progress, there should be too much difference between the stallion and the mare, the resulting stock, although in appearance successful, will always prove bad breeders, giving ungainly results, with blemishes which would never have occurred in proceeding wisely, especially not in improving by means of the primitive horse, all of whose ancestors are of the same race.

This latter crossing, that is, with the Arab, may sometimes give slower, but with it we are always sure to obtain finally better results. Thus in making choice of the best Percheron mares and crossing them with fine, but the stoutest possible, Arabs, we would advance towards certain improvements, and at the end of a few generations, we would be sure to find at each foaling season fine types, combining with the strength and docility of the dams the style, spirit, and intelligence, of the sires. For, it must not be forgotten, work requires intelligent horses; the more they are gifted with this quality, the longer they last and the more useful their services.

If the drunken driver of the Lyons Railroad, whose adventure is known the world over, had not had for his working companion a brute as nobly intelligent as the old horse Lapin, employed in hauling dirt carts, he would surely have perished. The driver having fallen in a state of intoxication on the railroad, before a train descending a grade, was on the point of being run over, when the horse, seeing him in this perilous situation and at the risk of being himself crushed, seized him by the waist and lifted him off the track. This deed, performed under the eyes of several squads of workmen, was soon known over the whole line, and won for Lapin the title of The (invalid’s and workingmen’s) Adopted Son, a nobly gained title and well-merited reward, if ever there was one.

In the legends of all times are to be found examples of the intelligence of the oriental horse; but I have never heard quoted a single one in regard to the English thoroughbred, which seems only formed for pride, gluttony, and brutality. As an example of the sagacity of the Arab, I will limit myself to mentioning a fact witnessed by all the officers of the school of Saumur. At this school there was an old Arabian known to the whole army. One day, a lady having her handkerchief scented with, I know not what perfume, passed in front of the veteran, caressing and feeding him with dainties. From that time on, the officer who accompanied the lady could never enter her parlor, although the odor of the perfume was imperceptible to all, but the horse, on his return, was aware of the fact, and bore witness to it, each time, by neighing and by a hundred expressions of pleasure.

The vigor and pluck of the oriental horse have passed into a proverb. There is not a soldier in our army who cannot bear testimony to this.

The horses of the English cavalry almost all perished in the Crimean war, whilst our Algerian horses almost all returned. In the Italian war our Algerian horses bore well the fatigues of the campaign, where the horses springing from the English were decimated.

It appears impossible that these two proofs should have no signification and should not teach a lesson. Ought it not to be concluded from them that the war-horse, that is the horse for endurance, should only be of Arab blood or at least derived from the Arab?

And are we not justified in believing that what has taken place with the war-horse applies also to other horses destined for continuous work? Hence are we not right in always preferring the Arab to the English stallion, when it is a question of improving the different breeds of work and draft-horses, as well as the war horse?

The Arabian stallion would seem so much the more fit for this use, as a long experience has proved that his get upon our native mares are much heavier than himself; they, at the same time, always transmitting a rich, unblemished blood and a solid frame—qualities which are preserved indefinitely.

The Arab horse imparts, also, great endurance to his progeny, and without going back as far as the turf, where we see figuring on the top round of the ladder Arlequin, Zephyr, Valencia, Corysandre the Lorraine, whose dam was an Arabian of Deux-Ponts, Anthony, Eylau, Kasbas, and Palmyre, let us be satisfied with citing in mass, all the fine and spirited breeds of Limousin, Navarre, Bigorre, Tarbes, and Auvergne, showing in every pore the presence of the Oriental blood.

It is also especially to be remarked, although the Arab does not trot and only gallops, that all his get are quick, square trotters. We can produce numberless examples of this, although Arab blood has been infinitely less disseminated than any other in our Northern districts.

We can cite the famous Eclipse of M. de Narbonne, the no less famous Herminie of M. Forcinal, all the descendants of Bacha, Aslan and Gallipoli, which were matchless, and the noble sons of Massoud, Eylau, and Noteur. But, as all these have a certain amount of English blood joined to the Arab, we shall be answered:—It was the English blood that trotted and gave them their winning points.—We will confine ourselves to citing only the sons of Bédouin, all admirable trotters, though all coming of poor Brittany mares, the Kerims, the Avisos, and the Moggys, whose fine action invariably attracts the attention of every one.

But the endurance possessed by the Arab in so eminent a degree is not the only quality to be considered. It is also the opinion of the best breeders that the race is good tempered, docile, patient, of great precocity, and easily raised, all of which qualities it invariably transmits to its get.

No steeple-chase horses have shown themselves more intelligent than Pledge, Raphael, Senora, and above all the immortal Franc-Picard, by whom the best riders found themselves excelled in the art of measuring an obstacle and mastering it skillfully; also, those were deep in the Arab blood. If Auricula, notwithstanding he was a son of Baron, with his variable and peevish temper has shown himself to be, when he chose, one of the best leapers of our age, it is because through his dam he is of Arab blood.

From all these considerations the Arabian seems greatly preferable to the English horse, which exacts, moreover, too much tact and skill on the part of man. The education of the wagon driver is not yet sufficiently advanced for him to be able to reap all the advantages claimed of the working races. The irritability of the English horse, his impatience, and his nervousness, which are, doubtless, of utility on the turf, are transmitted to all his descendants, which for this very reason are less fit for work, less governable, and more trying to the patience of the raw and ignorant driver during protracted service.

All who have raised colts out of common mares by Arabians are unanimous in opinion, and we have ourselves proved it, that their get is generally even tempered, of a mild, willing, and quiet disposition, easily and cheaply reared, and fit for work at three years old, thus paying for their keep.

It is quite the contrary with the colt of English blood. He, by reason of his fractiousness, his nervous ardor, his exacting nature, and his slow growth, requires a degree of care and management which does not permit him to render any essential service before the age of five years.

It results from this that the Arabian progeny, even at the first crossing, which is always the most difficult and critical, pays for its nourishment from the age of three years, whilst the English does not pay until he has reached five years, and this without counting the greater expense of his raising and the difficulty of finding men capable of breaking and training him without accident and bringing him safe to that quinquennial period.

Were their qualities the same, the Arabian would cost much less to the breeder than the English horse. To the former, then, should always be given the preference in moderately rich countries where agriculture has not arrived at great perfection. Thus it was by means of the Arabian that Limousin, Navarre, Bigorre, the plains of Tarbes and Auvergne, all countries neither very fertile nor wealthy, have formed their unrivalled horses, the hardiness of which suited the productions of the soil. These being unsuited to the more delicate and less vigorous English horse, its introduction was an injury to the native stock. In our days, Limousin has been ruined by the introduction of English blood, as formerly, in the district of Tarbes, three important breeders, Messrs. de Gontaut, de Bouillac, and de Montréal, ruined their studs with the English cross.

The Arabian can be used without fear upon the undulating slopes of elevated hills, and upon thin stony lands where agriculture is but little advanced; but the English horse requires rich, well-cultivated meadows and grassy valleys.

As regards form, the Arab cross is the surest. The sire being, if I may so speak, sui generis, of a confirmed race, and possessing for ages a like shape, his get always resemble him, no matter what may be the race, color, shape, and derivation, of the dam. Only, in consequence of the warmth and strength of his blood, the progeny is always larger and heavier than the sire.

It is not so with the English horse. Made up, and not having the same confirmed nature as the Arab, he has not the same sureness in generating. Sometimes his get is large and sometimes small. His progeny may be spare or may be stout. This comes from his ancestors being at times of one height and at times of another, and often resembling different types.

We have dwelt, perhaps, at too great length upon our preference for the Arab cross; it now remains to put it in practice. The method to be pursued in making this cross is simple.

Having an Arabian of pure race, the heaviest and finest bodied that can be found, put him to the heaviest and strongest short-limbed mares. Sell the male produce of this cross, unless it has been a perfect success. Be less strict with the fillies, reject a smaller number, and use the good for breeding. As much as their conformation will permit, and in order to fix the Arab blood in a deeper and more indelible manner, some choice specimens may be put either to their sire himself, or to such of the half-brothers as should have proved themselves the best. But beyond the first trial, consanguineous crossings should never again be contracted, except under exceedingly rare circumstances, or under great temptation. The dam of one of the most justly celebrated horses of our times is the result of breeding a stallion to his dam. From and after the second generation, colts and fillies, provided their merit had rendered them worthy of being used as producers, might be taken as types, and as a starting point of a solid and sure improvement of the race of a country.

When, in consequence of age and numerous generations of his own get growing up around him, the common sire might be exposed to alliances with his grandchildren, it would become indispensable to transfer him to a distant district by proceeding in the manner indicated above.

After such an infusion of warm blood many years might elapse without the necessity of recurring again to Arabian stock. But if it should be remarked that its distinctive characteristics commenced to disappear from the breed, and the action became less free and light, it should be again resorted to immediately, following the same method as before.

The light draft types at first obtained, might, according to the districts in which they are raised, be transformed into the posting, omnibus, and even heavy draft types. But all should be done with time and without haste nor even wishing to depart from a wise and prudent moderation.

I cannot terminate this chapter without warning the breeder against a peculiarity which hardly ever fails to strike a person, who, for the first time, makes a trial of the Arab cross, and which has even induced some to abandon this method without reaping its fruits. I desire to speak of a certain disproportion, more apparent than real, of the limbs with the body. It is thus explained: The Arabian, born and raised in a poor and barren country, is no sooner transported to a more fertile region, than a certain fullness of the body is an immediate consequence of this change. His progeny, easily fattened, rapidly become corpulent. It results from this, that although strongly limbed, they appear, for a large body, to have but weak extremities. But have patience; oats will draw in and strengthen those inflated flanks, and, after the second generation, the stomach of the colt will enlarge on account of the food being more abundant than concentrated, the fat will disappear, and his compact and solid limbs will appear what they really are.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE ENGLISH CROSS.

English blood, infused with judgment, allies well with the Percheron race, and we have met with perfectly successful results in the midst of the disappointments which have been the consequences of injudicious crossing. Too often these crossings have been effected in violation of common sense, without any attention to the distance which separates the blood horse from the common, low-bred Percheron mare, she having no affinity with him. But these trials require science, wealth, and perseverance, and are far from being within the reach of ordinary breeders. Those who would succeed must possess the talent of waiting, for unfortunately the rearing of the resulting progeny is a burden. Their slow development renders them but little fit for the labors to which the farmer is in the habit of consigning his colts. Then, they cannot, like the young Percheron, pass from hand to hand, and thus they find themselves stripped of the only advantage which renders the raising of the draft colts so profitable: avoiding embarrassment and affording a prompt profit to all through whose hands they pass. In fact, it can easily be conceived how favorably, at present, are these chances of profit distributed among several hands. The capital invested is soon returned; and thus this operation is within the reach of all purses.

PRINCE IMPERIAL.—FRENCH NORMAN.

The issue of English blood, if judiciously managed, will some day be finer than the unimproved Percheron. But, although carefully looked after and abundantly fed, he will remain puny during his early growth, and therefore his account can only be closed at a distant date. By whom, then, is he to be raised? By the farmer rich in ready money? In every country such men are rare. By the large landed proprietor? But he is not a breeder, or if he be, it is only of race-horses.

Some half-blood English stallions noted for strength and weight, standing at Mesle-sur-Sarthe, Courtomer, and Nogent-le-Rotrou, have produced fine coach and draft-horses, but their number has always been rather limited, and they have nearly all been raised without care, like the half-blood colt simply at pasture; consequently, the profit accruing has been nothing, or nearly nothing, and these have been able to add nothing useful in the way of example and imitation.

On the contrary, in Lower Perche, commencing at Nogent and extending as far as Vendôme, the draft-horse, properly speaking, is the only one that has been raised. The wagon-horse is there only met with as an exception, and the cultivator is far from being the worse off on this account. Witness the prosperity of Montdoubleau, which has become the first market of Europe; witness the splendid and spirited trotting mares it produces every year, and of which the Julies of M. Derré and the Sarahs of M. Lamoureux are glorious specimens.

Perche has seen but twice, to our knowledge, good and irrefutable results obtained from the English crossing with her race—the first, with Sandy; the second, with Bayard. Sandy was a draft stallion, with a long and silky mane, a perfectly white coat, and with a high and graceful gait like that of an oriental horse; lean and strong legs, a short head, dilated nostrils, and a large and intelligent eye. Although foaled in England, this horse was evidently not English; he must have come of eastern blood, as this is so often seen among our neighbors who successfully use the Arab blood in the formation of their draft and hunting races.

As for Bayard, he was a son of a Percheron mare belonging to M. Viel, of Chiffreville, near Argenton, one of the finest and purest ever seen. This mare had been bred to Idalis, a small and well-knit wagon-horse, son of Don Quichotte, who descended from the thoroughbred brood-mare Moina. Consequently, Bayard had in his veins some of the best oriental blood, and it is to this circumstance that is attributed the vigor, gait, and beauty, of all his progeny.

Perhaps the two stallions Benvenuto and Fandango, which passed for Anglo-Percherons, and which have been cited as types of draft-horse stallions, will be held up to me as a refutation. Benvenuto, the stallion from Pin, which has produced well in Perche, was not the son of Eastham and a Percheron mare, as was said at the time in order to have him accepted by the government, but was really out of a Percheron mare by a Percheron stallion coming from the neighborhood of Bellesme, and the descendant of Arabian stallions which had been standing in that district.

Fandango, the other crossed Percheron, uniformly a successful stallion, had double cross, on the sire’s side, of the blood of the Arabian Dagout, and his dam, whose pedigree has also been explained to me, came likewise from near Bellesme.

A Percheron stallion called Jean-le-Blanc, native of Mauves, and sold about the year 1825 to a M. Viard of Villers, in Ouche, near Sap, (department of the Orne,) has been the sole improving agent of the equine race in Ouche, which, up to that time, was reduced to miserable small horses without any stamp or value. Although heavy, powerful, and, indeed, a shaft-horse, his gait and an indescribable something pervading his whole body, recalled so thoroughly the idea of the oriental family that one was disposed to take him for an enlarged Arabian. This fact, often related to us, excited our curiosity. We did not rest until pressing inquiry upon inquiry, one after another, we ascertained that his family had been crossed with a stallion from the Pin stables, standing at the Chateau of Côèsmes, near Bellesme. And, what was this stallion? The Arab Gallipoli!

What can be inferred from these facts, if it be not that the crossings which have best succeeded in Perche have been those of the Arab, and that the English crosses have only succeeded when tempered by contact with the Arab?

But if the absolute want of stallions for improving the breed be felt among the pure Percherons; if it be impossible to procure either good Arabs or heavy English, freshly tempered with Arab blood; if important and powerful considerations compel a recourse to the English cross, the latter should only be accepted intelligently and under good and wise conditions. Therefore we ask leave to refer the reader particularly to what we have already advanced in the preceding chapter upon the choice of an English stallion.

In Brittany, in the department of Finisterre, we have often heard it declared by quite a large number of breeders, that for having wished to proceed too fast in that way, they had, from the commencement, experienced numberless disappointments, the second generation from the English cross being always inferior to the first. From stout sires and dams, who, from their general appearance might be classed in the category of heavy-draft, there daily came ungainly stock, thin, lanky, leggy, and without weight in the hind-quarter, unattractive, of a difficult sale when young, and proving a veritable misfortune to the small farmer counting upon the sale of the colt to pay his rent and having neither the place nor means to raise him. This stock was, moreover, the object of another disappointment quite as serious as the first; rarely was a good worker to be found among this burdensome race.

Is not this tall, lank, weak,—in a word this abortive progeny,—issue of strong and hardy parents, a strange and discouraging result? “Oh! why is this?” exclaimed the Brittany cultivators. There was a simple reason for it, of which they had not learned the value. They proceeded with race-horse speed in the way of crossing, and gave no oats. They were ignorant of the requirements of the distingué horse; they did not know that in the sire and dam, or at least in one of them, there was circulating more or less English blood, which produces strange results in proportion as it leaves its native place and reaches a poor country or one of hard work, and in which it no longer receives the prodigal care of its native land.

We have said that the Arab preserves indefinitely his warm blood and constantly gives what he has not even himself,—although this truth resembles a paradox,—that is: a powerful appearance and a strong frame. It is not the same with the English horse and his derivatives; they become thin and always degenerate. If their progeny be not fed with oats without stint,—they require this, and are heavy eaters, like everything which comes from the north,—their blood grows poorer rapidly. In successive generations of these families, born in a dull and damp atmosphere scarcely ever visited by the sun, the legs become lean and lanky. It is necessary to recur incessantly to new drafts of English upon English, always expensive and requiring additional care, without taking into account that the result of too great an infusion of this peevish and often irascible blood would be to destroy the heavy-draft race—a race that I would like to see preserved intact alongside of the two others, though he be not quite suited to a country as hilly as Perche. He might, doubtless, plow successfully the vast and smooth plains of Beauce; but this is not the lot of all. I look for him in that busy country called Perche, where he must, without rest or pity, with a shoulder free from all tenderness, drag heavy vehicles to the tops of hills, and it will please me to see the play of his haunches and limbs in descending with these loads bravely and without flinching to the bottom of the valleys.

Do you expect, also, from a horse derived from English blood that cool, restrained, and ever fresh energy, that courageous patience of which the Percheron, every day, gives an example in the omnibuses of the streets of Paris? Dragging at a trot heavy loads, the weight of which frightens the imagination; stopping short, both in ascending or descending; starting off freely and always without balking; never sulking at his work or food, and fearing neither heat nor cold: this is a specimen of Percheron qualities.

Do you expect from an unjudicious cross with English blood a good, heavy draft-horse, a good shaft-horse, or a true wagon-horse? No one has now any illusion on this score.

In London, a traction of only about 2,000 lbs. is required of a draft-horse. In Paris, the horses harnessed to the heavy stone carts are required to drag as much as 5,000 lbs. each, and often even more.

What will dealers in heavy draft-horses do? The trade is already taxed to supply the demand. For long experience has taught, and unjudicious crosses have proved the English horse and his derivatives to be unfit for this purpose, for they are too nervous and not sufficiently staunch. Thus, the trade avoids them by instinct, and by instinct avoids every thing resembling them. And, on the other hand, it seizes hold of and clings eagerly to every indication that can serve it as a sign or mark—every thing that can guide it in the search for what it likes, and every thing that can guard against its opposite.

Hence, it repels and proscribes the dark-colored coats without examination and reflection, because they are considered the colors of the English horse; it accepts the grays with confidence, because with them it perceives the absence of the dreaded blood, and in them it has found that which satisfies all its wants. Would we have arrived at this point if we had been prudent, and had the cross-breeding been better understood?

Finally, what is there at the end of this negative pole and this positive pole? There is the Percheron on whom has devolved, and will devolve for a long time yet, the rude and killing mission of executing the feats of strength exacted of him by modern civilization. The profits in supplying the demand, accrue, and will accrue for a long time to the producer.

Thus so long as machinery does not replace the horse in the traction of heavy carriages, so long as the necessity for hard labor remains, requiring strength, intelligence, endurance, and willingness, so long to the Percheron alone will be reserved the dangerous honor of being the great draft power, and the price of this matchless agent will increase in proportion to the growing impossibility of finding his substitute.

It is now the time, while crossing the active and trotting breeds with the Arab or with the well-chosen English horse, to carefully preserve the heavy draft-horse, and, by means of persevering and judicious crossing, retain for him his marked superiority.

These crossings, which I will sum up in concluding, may find a powerful aid in the creation of a Stud-book of the Percheron breed.

CHAPTER IX.
IMPROVEMENT BY MEANS OF THE STUD-BOOK.

The Percheron breed is old enough, is propagated with sufficient uniformity, and presents sufficiently marked typical qualities to authorize us in claiming, in favor of its members, the characteristics and the title of a separate and distinct breed. Consequently, a Stud-book, recording its pedigrees, would not be out of place. This book would have the effect of concentrating the efforts of all the breeders, giving them a definite direction, and at the same time it would designate stallions foreign to the race, and which, up to the present time, have been presented with impunity as Percherons.

England exhibits a curious example of the influence of the Stud-book in the improvement of a breed. The equine and bovine races of that country, before the establishment of the Stud and Herd-books, were but rudimental.

The small number of colts of the Royal mares by Eastern stallions would have been lost had they not been classed together in families in a special book.

The discovery of the value of the bull Hubback would have been to no purpose had his descendants not been classified by themselves in an authentic manner.

For it is especially, and only, in the reproduction by family that a breed is formed. Consanguinity alone can form, in the beginning, a bond of cohesion and connection among the descendants of the primitive families. By it, alone, they acquire that great similarity of shape and adaptation to particular ends, that great ancestral power, which they transmit to their posterity, and which, even in a commercial point of view, gives them a superior value.

If it be permitted me for this purpose to select an example within our reach among the bovine races, I would say that, in Nivernais the celebrated Charollaise breed of cattle, only a few years ago, was diffuse, without uniformity, and without commercial value. The idea of classifying it by means of a Herd-book was no sooner put in practice than good crossings, being all made with system, no longer lost their significance. The breed has visibly improved, and, at present, it has acquired a value which gives it a rank immediately after the Cotentin.

The Stud-book might be established, as we have indicated above, by inscribing therein all the stallions and mares which had received prizes for years back, continuing this operation for a dozen years to come, and adding therein also the animals which had not taken prizes or had not been shown in the fairs, but which public attention had classed among the number of types valuable on account of the beauty and sureness of their reproduction.

Parallel to the mode of improvement which I have already shown, (Chapter 1st, Part Second), and which has as its agents the members of the Council-boards and the district members of each canton, there might be formed, as a means of embracing all, a great annual Department Fair, to be held alternately in the best towns of Perche at the time of the fairs which attract the most people; in Orne, at Mortagne and Alençon; at Chartres, Nogent-le-Rotrou, and Chateaudun, for Eure and Loir; at Vendôme and Montdoubleau for the department of Loir and Cher. The departments of the Cote-d’Or, Nievre, and Youne, which possess the best Percheron stallions, might likewise enter into the association of the Percheron Stud-book, for which they have all the elements.

This book would give increased value to the breed, as is easily understood, for it is the surest of all the means of improvement and perpetuation of valuable qualities. It would drive off, forever, the defective stallions, and those corrupted with hereditary blemishes, as well as those coming from tainted families, which, I feel sure, would be refused a record in its pages. The prices of colts would likewise gain by this measure, the effect being a powerful impulse given to breeding. But it would be necessary to be very careful about ever admitting any foreign blood, in order that the recorded herds might accumulate more and more an ancestral force.

The Stud-book would offer still another advantage, that of permitting us to find again the good types, should Perche some day, in consequence of bad crossings, or from want of judgment, deviate from the true way. In fact, desire of gaining too much and of enjoying too fast at present tempts every body into innovations. Our age, so eager to enjoy, and so quick in all enterprises, has no longer the patience to wait for the improvements that time and study can alone confirm and solidly establish. It wants things off-hand, and for this it is often satisfied with adulterated products; hence, these injudicious crossings; hence, this mania for mixing together without discernment—a mania which threatens to destroy our valuable national breeds.

In the midst of all this, the opposition of the army, of the government stud-stables, and of the trade in heavy horses, bring forth new complications. The army, neither occupied in breeding nor raising, and naturally remaining beyond the consequences it causes, encourages these crossings, obtaining thereby, more rapidly, the horses it needs. But how many of the horses bred by these means are not only unfit for army service, but also unfit for any service! Indeed, with a blood stallion and a common mare, if at the first crossing, among the thin-flanked, imperfect ones, there happen to be a passable horse, good, and with a certain degree of style, ordinarily all progress ends there. For, by the use of the latter as a reproducer, an animal ungainly and without value will most certainly be the result, except by chance. The races of the south affiliate with the Arab, and those of the north with the English; but the English, by the infusion of his blood, destroys the race of the south. This mode of crossing tends, then, to cause our old French races to disappear.

At the government studs, with elevated views, and with a disinterestedness to which all delight in rendering full justice and homage, they constantly encourage the crossings in which they see the realization of their views. They offer rewards, the most powerful of all incentives—giving but very modest prizes to the heavy horses, proscribing the light coats, and reserving their encouragement for the light horses of dark colors.

As for the trade, it adopts but slightly the views of the army and the government stables, and it gives its money to what has remained outside of these impulses.

With the Stud-book we will be able, without giving offence, to satisfy the army, the stud-stables, and the trade—the army and the stud-stables, which want the light, stylish, dark-skinned horse; the trade—omnibuses, consumption of the large cities, and agriculture—which require weight, vigor, action, honesty, docility, and endurance.

The Stud-book will furnish the means of finding types fit for all services. But the breeders will divide themselves into two opposite parties. Those who wish the dark-skinned, light horse, will breed him on the uplands and in the more barren districts. The others, in the rich, fertile, and abundant meadows, with a more nutritious food, will apply themselves to the opposite type.

Each will work in his own sphere; the profits, losses, successes, and failures, will soon be summed up, and will soon become, on both sides, the object of minute comparisons. If the light horse produce the most profit, his empire will soon extend over the domain of the heavy one.

But if, on the day of reaction, it be recognized that this crossing is incapable of ever making a good omnibus, a good shaft, or a good team horse; if the crossed breed be set aside for the primitive horse; and if it come about that the Percheron of pure race is better paid for, the fashion will soon return to him. There will the utility of the Stud-book be felt, for it will be by means of the families preserved authentically pure, in the cantons which had chosen them, that it will alone become possible to remold a race, compromised in a moment of hasty judgment, and render it plentiful upon the market.

It would suffice to bring together these types, and encourage the start in order to reëstablish Perche in all her glory. They might even, in the end, bring back to a good condition the lanky race that a better system, a more abundant nourishment, and more appropriate classification, would be called on to restore to its primitive form. Some generations would suffice to restore to it that homogeneousness that it formerly possessed, when the post-service required of it its vigorous and swift mail-coach horses.

In summing up, the Stud-book seems to me a useful agent in a triple point of view, namely: in the preservation, perfection, and restoration of the Percheron breed.