No. fl. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 323 



A Member: It is not quite tlie same tempered iiorse. 



DR. GAY: He is a colder horse to-day than he was 25 years ago. 

 There is no question about that, and it is only due to their care in 

 selection that he is not colder than he is. There is a nice pair of 

 farm horses that have won i)rizes in all parts of the country and 

 show every evidence of I'ercheron breeding. Here is a horse that has 

 won prize after prize at Philadelphia workhorse parades, and isn't he 

 a Percheron? He has the earmarks all over, although you see he is 

 a draft horse but the product of a Percheron sire, probably the old 

 fashioned sort, lighter, snappier, joined on probably to a good stout 

 mare. Here is a representative of the fourth breed, a breed that by 

 the way is showing a greater |)ercentage of increase than any other 

 breed in this State, and I think that is true the country over. 



The breed of course has had a serious set-back on account of the 

 war. We don't know just what Ave will do in the future for Belgian 

 horses. We in this State I guess will depend on our Crawford and 

 Mercer county breeders. Here is a breed that descends even more 

 directly than the Shire from the old Flanders horse I have referred to. 

 Tn the first place he is rather cold, he don't show the characteristic 

 breeding about the head that the Percheron did, but he does not show 

 the great development of hair that was characteristic of the old 

 Flanders horses; he is a clean-legged horse as far as we can have 

 him clean legged, yet he has bone enough to be in the draft class. 

 What are the essentials of this breed? They are more environment 

 than foundation stock. You have high hips from here back and 

 from here up; that is, take the head and neck and legs and feet off 

 a Belgian horse and I think we are safe in conceding that he will 

 beat the world. There is no horse draftier in his body, l^ou re- 

 member I said the Shire was the draftiest bar one; this is the one. 

 There is no horse so compact, wide and deep as a Belgian unless it be 

 a Shire; and wonderful ribs; but there are some things associated 

 with that we have always to guard against. With this extremely 

 short back we like so well in draft horses, we are always going to get 

 a neck correspondingly short. If his neck is too short, it will have 

 the same shape as a hog's neck, and where are you going to put a 

 collar? A horse has got to have some shape to his neck to have a 

 good collar. In the same way the extremely short body oftentimes 

 gives us a very short leg that has a rather sturdy pastern with it. 

 Don't understand me as complaining about the features of this breed. 

 I neglected to mention the heel of the Percheron. Those who did 

 not like the feet of a Clyde horse, how do you like the hind legs of a 

 Percheron horse? If the Percheron breeders don't do something to 

 improve the hind leg of their breed, they are going to suffer the same 

 as the Chester hog breeders did in Iowa. The breed was so popular 

 that every white hog was called a Chester White, with the result 

 that the breed itself fell into disrepute. 



A Member: How do you like the forelegs of a Belgian horse? 



DR. GAY: If he has got pastern enough, I like him all right. 



A Member: What about his small knee? Can he pick himself 

 up any? 



