O.v.v/urs Horses. 



113 



It is true that more than twenty years before the Franco-German war a few large cart- 

 horses from the Continent were imported, chiefly by Mr. Henry Dodd, a great dust contractor, 

 for the London trade, who went over to France and Holland on the suggestion of Mr. 

 Shillibeer, the founder of the London omnibus system. But since 1871 the importation 

 of French omnibus horses, and what may be called trotting draught-horses, has increased so 

 rapidly, that in 1872 the London demands alone reached 12,000. In the following year the 

 stables of the General Omnibus Company were almost entirely recruited from France and 



FRKNCH HALF-BRED GOVERNMENT STALLION. 



Belgium ; and nearly all the horses purchased for the Autumn Manoeuvres were foreigners — 

 Normans, Boulonnais, and Percherons. 



The horse stock of France amounts to about three millions, and has for more than a century 

 preserved the same proportion to the number of the population, except in time of war, when it 

 has always been unequal to the demand, although the character of the horses bred has changed 

 in a very remarkable manner, under the influence of changed institutions and altered systems 

 of cultivation. The inclination of the modern French farmers, except in one or two restricted 

 districts, is to breed a sort of cart-horse that can trot slowly ; and of these, if peace prevails, 

 they are likely to produce a plentiful supply ; but there is, and always has been, a notable 



