THE HORSE HISTORY. 483 



the government. Like the Arab, they left entire their horses 

 that they might have the widest range of selection for crosses. 

 Their uses in war made a demand for the horse of greatest 

 power, hardiness, and spirit, for which centuries of like wants 

 created a constant demand, which it was to the interest of farmer 

 and ruler to supply. Such influences were more powerful and 

 constant in the evolution of the Percheron horse than can be 

 the fitful and limited aims of the most enthusiastic combina- 

 tions of men of diverse interests and tastes. While we may 

 search in vain for the starting-point in the history of the French 

 draft-horse, at which there was a distinct breed formed by a 

 known and recorded combination of blood, we are assured that 

 a distinct type has been established on the law of selection and 

 " survival of the fittest." We find in France a most wonderful 

 race of horses, so allied to the Arab and the ponderous ancient 

 breeds of Normandy and Flanders, as to concentrate in a better 

 form the excellences of both. 



Ohio Investigates the French Horse. In 1865 the 

 Ohio State Board of Agriculture sent their Secretary, Hon. J. 

 II. Klippart, to France and the German States to study methods 

 of agriculture and stock-raising. His report may be found in 

 the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1865. He describes the vari- 

 ous subdivisions of Percherons as follows : 



" In the Percherons, various subdivisions may be distin- 

 guished : The * FINE PERCHERON,' chiefly in the departments of 

 Eure and Loire and Cher, is a powerful, fiery animal, very well 

 fed from youth up, with oblique shoulders, long croup, and pro- 

 jecting hips ; very fine specimens are found on the Cantons d'll- 

 liers, Courville, and Chateauneuf, where they are fed as much 

 oats as they can eat." 



"THE 'HEAVY PERCHERON' on the Orne, Sarthe, and Eure, is 

 nothing less than a fine or well-built animal, but a horse re- 

 nowned for heavy draft." 



" THE ' SMALL PERCHERON,' in the west, in the vicinity of 

 1'Aigle and Mortague is much smaller and lighter, has straighter 

 shoulders, a shorter croup, hips more level than fine ; yet he is 

 a solid and useful horse, but not very fast." The " Small Per- 



