154 THE HOESE BOOK. 



gressive when occasion required, a master of 

 detail as well as a man of affairs, the world is 

 vastly better for the touch of his vanished hand. 



THE DEAFT BEEEDS. 

 History contains no record of any large breed 

 of horses having been developed on high 

 ground. Omitting detail it was not until the 

 horse in his westward migration reached the 

 low-lying marshy lands of northern Europe 

 that he began to gather the bulk and strength 

 which have made for the present-day drafter. 

 It is also immaterial where the first real 

 drafters were developed. That development 

 was probably simultaneous athwart a consider- 

 able stretch of country. Still we may accept 

 that part of Belgium and Holland erstwhile de- 

 nominated Flanders as the fountainhead from 

 which flowed the stream which has given us the 

 true draft horse. From the parent stock there 

 obtained the various heavy breeds as we know 

 them today have been evolved according to the 

 desires of the various peoples which have de- 

 veloped them. As there was no native American 

 heavy horse he had to be imported and as the 

 importing business has grown and ramified we 

 may divide the draft breeds into three groups 

 — the French, the British and the Belgian. 



THE FEENCH GEOUP. 

 In France the government recognizes two 

 pure draft breeds — the Percheron and the Bou- 



