58 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



superior foresight with which France has provided for 

 her cavalry and other army corps in the matter of re- 

 mounts. It is a national work, the matured fruit of 

 which will be fully apparent only in a national crisis when 

 most needed. 



56. History in France. In the latter part of the 

 seventeenth century, the French government, by establish- 

 ing the Administration des Haras, began the systematic 

 improvement of their horses, and as early as 1690 there 

 were 1600 stallions known as " royal " or " approved." 

 During the many years of disturbance in France, changes 

 of government and national reverses, the work has gone 

 steadily on to the present day. In 1879, there were 

 3239 stallions in the government service, and at the 

 present time provision is made for the maintenance of 

 3300 government stallions, mostly kept in that part of 

 France west of Paris, and particularly in the province 

 or district of Normandy. It is in this section that the 

 breed has had its greatest growth, and it was because of 

 this that some of the earlier importations were called 

 Anglo-Normans. In 1833, a stud-book was established, 

 and in 1870 the department of agriculture was given con- 

 trol of the government horse-breeding interests under the 

 supervision of a director general and staff of inspectors. 

 The government control is exercised in a way very similar 

 to that described in discussing the Percheron, except that 

 the government, in the case of the coach horses, does most 

 of the breeding, and consequently branded stallions 

 among the French Coachers are not so common as among 

 the draft breeds. According to the report of the Director 

 General for 1903, about fifteen hundred stallions owned 

 by private parties were approved and authorized. The 

 same classes are made as in the case of the draft breeds, 



