THE PERCHERON HORSE. 9 



The breeder, who is ordinarily a farmer, not suffi- 

 ciently rich to be beyond temptation, finds himself with- 

 out strength, without resistance in presence of this urgent 

 demand. The finest types, not only of the males, but of 

 the females also,, are disappearing every day. 



This, tending incessantly to deprive Perche of that in 

 which it is so superior, is so much more to be dreaded as 

 the question of filling up the vacancies and of saving this 

 race from a tendency to degeneration and from inevitable 

 destruction becomes the necessary corollary of such com- 

 mercial operations. 



Entered upon this course, if Perche does not adopt, with- 

 out delay, salutary measures, if it does not make a vigor- 

 ous effort to place itself in a condition, either to resist the 

 tendency or to contribute to it in a well-maintained and 

 uniform manner, the breed is fated to a complete eclipse at 

 the moment even when the future belongs to it. 



Indeed the future does belong to the Percheron horse, if 

 he can sustain himself in the first rank of the truly useful 

 races until the not far distant day when that era of 

 triumph will come. Every thing now seems to incline to 

 establish the truth of what, at first, appeared a paradox. 



I am aware that, for the moment, the Percheron has, in 

 the class of fancy-horses, an antagonist that seemt to de- 

 rive formidable strength from the prestige belonging to 

 elegance. The English thoroughbred and its congeners are 

 in possession of the scepter of fashion and "bon-ton." 

 But this antagonism, more apparent than dangerous, on ac- 

 count of the elevated but rather limited spheres in which 

 it exists, will last but for a time, and will yield before rea- 

 son and the necessities of a difficult situation. 



Our age, factitious to excess, is governed by the de- 

 mands and temptations of a luxury which is tending to 

 ruin the most solidly established families. It wildly suf- 

 fers patrimonies and fortunes to dwindle away under the 

 lead of a vain and noisy ostentation, without perceiving 

 1* 



