THE PEKCHERON HORSE. 65 



all through whose hands they pass. In fact, it can easily 

 be conceived how favorably, at present, are these chances 

 of profit distributed among several hands. The capital 

 invested is soon returned; and thus this operation is with- 

 in the reach of all purses. 



The issue of English blood, if judiciously managed, will 

 some day be finer than the unimproved Percheron. But, 

 although carefully looked after and abundantly fed, he 

 will remain puny during his early growth, and therefore 

 his account can only be closed at a distant date. By 

 whom, then, is he to be raised ? By the farmer rich in 

 ready money ? In every country such men are rare. By 

 the large landed proprietor ? But he is not a breeder, or 

 if he be, it is only of race-horses. 



Some half-blood English stallions noted for strength and 

 weight, standing at Mesle-sur-Sarthe, Courtomer, and 

 Nogent-le-Rotrou, have produced fine coach and draft- 

 horses, but their number has always been rather limited, 

 and they have nearly all been raised without care, like 

 the half-blood colt simply at pasture ; consequently, the 

 profit accruing has been nothing, or nearly nothing, and 

 these have been able to add nothing useful in the way 

 of example and imitation. 



On the contrary, in Lower Perche, commencing at 

 Nogent and extending as far as Yendome, the draft-horse, 

 properly speaking, is the only one that has been raised. 

 The wagon-horse is there only met with as an exception, 

 and the cultivator is far from being the worse off on this 

 account. Witness the prosperity of Montdoubleau, which 

 has become the first market of Europe; witness the 

 splendid and spirited trotting mares it produces every 

 year, and of which the Julles of M. Derre and the 

 Sarahs of M. Lamoureux are glorious specimens. 



Perche has seen but twice, to our knowledge, good and 

 irrefutable results obtained from the English crossing with 

 her race the first, with Sandy / the second, with 



