12 FARM ANIMALS 



brought to its present perfection in England. The 

 modern Thoroughbred is the first form which 

 breeders have developed; but a number of other 

 breeds, each having stud books and separate stan- 

 dards for registry, have been developed from the 

 same source. These breeds are the Trotter, 

 American Saddle Horse, French Coach, German 

 Coach, Hackney, Cleveland Bay, Morgan Horse, 

 and various breeds of ponies. 



On the other hand a low, heavily built horse, 

 with comparatively large feet and limbs developed 

 and spread over a considerable portion of Europe, 

 especially the northern, low lying sections, and from 

 this old black horse of Europe or the Black Horse 

 of Flanders as it is variously called, all of our 

 modern draft horses have been produced by selec- 

 tion, careful breeding, and a mixture of other 

 strains of blood. These breeds include the Per- 

 cheron, Clydesdale, Shire Horse, Suffolk, French 

 Draft and Belgian Draft. In the following 

 paragraphs we shall give the characteristics of the 

 different breeds, beginning with the draft horse as 

 being peculiarly suitable for breeding on the farm. 



Percheron. This breed of horse is unquestion- 

 ably the most popular of all the drafters. It was 

 developed in France in the district of Perche and is 

 to be considered as the national French horse. 

 Two forms of the Percheron were developed first, 

 one of which was a comparatively light horse used 

 for coach purposes, while the second was the heavy 

 draft type which is preferred in America. The 

 Percheron was introcfuced into America about 50 

 years ago. It is a massive, heavily muscled horse, 

 standing 16 to 17.2 hands high and weighing from 

 1600 to 2200 pounds or more. The Percheron is 

 known throughout the country for his character- 



