THE DRAFT BREEDS OF HORSES 13 



lar for general traffic and for bus and tram use in cities. 

 The demand in the United States is for the larger types. 



5. Uses of Percherons. The Percheron has little 

 use except as a draft horse and as a producer of grade 

 draft horses. The usefulness of this breed for draft 

 purposes is so well known that it is unnecessary to dwell 

 on that feature. But it is well to call attention to the 

 fact that a large proportion of our draft teams contain 

 Percheron blood, and that the results which follow a 

 cross of a pure-bred Percheron stallion on a mare of other 

 draft breeds, or even on the heavier types of our common 

 mares, are most excellent. 



6. Distribution. The Percheron breed has proved 

 generally popular in nearly all parts of the United States, 

 particularly in the farming regions where draft horses 

 are raised for market. It is well adapted to farm condi- 

 tions and meets with favor on the markets. Plumb 

 (Types and Breeds of Farm Animals) quotes Weld as 

 authority for the statement that in 1866 there were fully 

 5000 Percherons in this country. Illinois has been the 

 chief center for the breed, with the adjoining states of 

 Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin following with 

 lesser numbers. The same author states that between 

 1851 and 1883 nearly 4000 Percherons were imported 

 or bred in the United States, and these were distributed 

 about as follows: Illinois, 1834; Ohio, Indiana and 

 Michigan, 577; Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, 424; 

 New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 280 ; Missouri, 

 Kansas and Nebraska, 186. These figures are an index 

 of the relative extensiveness of the Percheron breeding 

 interests to-day, although it is likely the western states 

 carry more compared with the others than they did at 

 that early time. The southern states have become an 



