204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



weighed from twelve to fourteen hundred. They are described as 

 having been "very broad and deep, of great girth, short in leg, 

 close coupled and compact in ever}' wa}', yet rapid roadsters. 

 Their legs were flat, strong in the joints and free from blemishes, 

 the hoofs protected by hair growing above the coronet as well as at 

 the fetlocks." All or nearly all were grey, and this seems to have 

 been, as it probably is to-day, the predominating color. 



In 1851 Mr. Charles Fullington, of Oliio, brought out a horse 

 known as "Louis Napoleon," the first importation West of the 

 Alleghanies. The superior character of the grades gotten by this 

 horse led at once to numerous importations. Meanwhile the 

 breeders of the East had not been idle, but in Massachusetts an 

 active interest was taken in this class of stock. To Hon. Geo. B. 

 Loring much of the credit should be given for the impetus this 

 industry received during the sixties. As President of the Massa- 

 chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, he urged and finally 

 secured the importation of some of the finest specimens ever brought 

 from France. Even at that early da}' he foresaw a future for this 

 class of stock, and that in the economy of farm work the Percheron 

 must play an important part. 



In 1868 the first importation was made to Illinois where now one 

 finds the great heart of the industry in America. From this date 

 the numbers increased rapidly, and soon after, the earlier importei's 

 organized and instituted the Percheron Stud Book. ^Like breeders 

 of all blooded stock, they placed great stress on pedigree values, as 

 well as individual merit, and labored to secure and maintain that 

 purity of blood which is always necessary for its preservation. To- 

 day millions are invested in this industry, and to the West it has 

 been one of the most profitable of all departments of breeding. 



While through the entire West, and in the Canadas and the Mar- 

 itime Provinces so much attention has been given to the breeding of 

 this class of horse stock the State of Maine meanwhile has been an 

 immense consumer instead of producer, and only within a compara- 

 tively brief period has the subject of breeding Percherons engaged 

 more than passing notice, save perhaps in a very few individual 

 cases. 



Even at the present time the number of pure bred Percheron 

 stallions in M.ine. is ridiculously small, when compared with other 

 classes, while hardlv a single mare can be found within our borders, 



