88 THE PEKCHEKON HOBSE. 



dncements in the way of prizes could be offered to retain 

 the fine breeding mares upon the soil, and put an end to 

 this custom, so inimical to progress. 



The farmers who have pasture grounds, as in the en- 

 virons of Regmalard, make use of them, for raising their 

 colts, as is done in Merlerault and in the Auge Valley. 

 Instead of letting them loose in the fields, they are sent 

 to pasture. 



The hay of the valleys is good, but insufficient for the 

 supply of the farms ; the deficit is made up by the use of 

 artificial fodders, in which clover enters for three-quarters ; 

 the remainder is composed of fenugreek, lucern, and some 

 roots. Millet, or barley and oat straw are also given 

 as food, and in certain cantons they are stacked in alter- 

 nate layers with the meadow grass, in order to give them 

 the odor and fragrance of hay an ingenious method of 

 making an unattractive food acceptable. 



The stables, although much better than formerly, in the 

 good old times of the race, still leave a great deal to be 

 desired. They are not furnished with stalls, but the 

 horses are tied alongside of one anojther without any 

 separation. But such is the gentleness of character of 

 this breed that an accident was never heard of. 



The whole of the management which we have just de- 

 scribed has a marked tendency towards constantly en- 

 larging the horse at the expense of his nervous system. 



This diet, completely out of place in a mild, grain pro- 

 ducing country, has reason for existing in Perche, and the 

 Percheron cultivator knows too well what he does in em- 

 ploying it, not to have understood this. The climate and 

 the products of Perche, the air and the water, affect too 

 exclusively the nervous system not to require being con- 

 stantly combatted. 



For this I desire to take an example in the whole animal 

 kingdom stocking this country. Everybody to-day well 

 knows the influence of climate upon animals. No one 



