THE PEECHEEON HOESE. 89 



now any longer doubts that it is to the sharp and healthy 

 air of the Percheron country, to its elevated hills, and to 

 its atmosphere constantly renewed by the powerful ven- 

 tilators of its valleys and forests, that this country owes 

 the eminent qualities of its fine race of horses, which has 

 won for it the right of displaying this significant title : 

 " Perche, the land of good horses." Everything surround- 

 ing us inclines us to adopt this opinion. The domestic 

 animals brought here are transformed in a short time by 

 the contact of the air breathed and the nourishment 

 furnished. The marked types of the Billot and Creve- 

 coeur fowls are no sooner brought here than at the first 

 generation a total change is effected in their looks. From 

 the second generation it is difficult to recognize them in 

 the thin, lean, and nervously formed fowl, with a wild 

 look, and always ready to take wing. 



The bovine race of Perche is also far inferior to the im- 

 proved race. It is the opposite of the kind prized nowa- 

 days, the race which is mild, lymphatic, and short-legged, 

 always inclined to fat, and having in its bony frame only 

 just enough to serve it for its locomotion, forming a 

 quadrilateral of flesh, mounted on four small legs, a rump 

 bending with its haunches, a broad, smooth back, and a 

 low brisket. Its horns, which are seemingly useless in a 

 country from which man has driven out the wild beasts, 

 fall overlapping one another, like a useless ornament, upon 

 the head. 



Such is not the Percheron breed of cattle ; on the con- 

 trary it is dry and bony, of a nervous temperament, long 

 legs, angular haunches, contracted chest, lank thigh,and thin 

 neck, with a long, thin head. Two long horns of a greenish- 

 white stand up in the air, always threatening as in a savage 

 country, infested with dangerous animals. An expressive 

 word designates them fully : a cattle dealer will tell you 

 they are "staggy" and will pass on without bestowing upon 

 them a glance. They are hardly fit for quick fattening, 



