CART HORSES. 225 



Pennsylvania. It is doubtful if they could be bred 

 with profit in New England, but seemingly it would be 

 profitable for farmers at the East to buy Percheron, 

 or half-bred Percheron. or Clydesdale colts at the age 

 of two or three, work them moderately, and sell them 

 again at the age of five or six. Under this system, 

 the horses would come to the market in much harder, 

 better condition than the corn-fed animals of the 

 West, and consequently they would bring a better 

 price. Upon the farm, the colt would be able to per- 

 form enough labor to pay his way ; and the difference 

 between his value at three and his value at six years 

 of age would be clear profit. It is in this manner 

 that Percherons are brought up in France ; the farm- 

 ers who buy them from the breeders, farmers also, 

 working them moderately until they are of an age 

 to be sold. 



The enormous shire horses that are used in London 

 as dray horses receive their education in the same 

 way. " The traveller/' says an English writer, " has 

 probably wondered to see four of these enormous 

 animals in a line before a plough, on no very heavy 

 soil, and where two lighter horses would have been 

 quite sufficient. The farmer is training them for 

 their future destiny ; and he does right in not requir- 

 ing the exertion of all their strength, for their bones 

 are not yet perfectly formed nor their joints knit, and 

 were he to urge them too severely he would probably 

 injure and deform them. By the gentle and constant 

 exercise of the plough he is preparing them for that 

 continued and equable pull at the collar which is 

 afterwards so necessary." 



In England it is customary to use heavy shire horses 



15 



