232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



explained by the Professor and his assistants. After some hours 

 devoted to viewing the magnificent collections of natural history 

 and the working facilities which the Museum affords, the Board, 

 by invitation of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri- 

 culture, visited the Bussey Farm, at West Roxbury, to examine 

 the Norman horses, imported by that society, during the last 

 year, from France. Respecting the history and characteristics 

 of the horses, Mr. Saltonstall, on behalf the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, presented the following 

 statement. 



THE PERCHERON HORSE. 



The trustees of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting 

 Agriculture, feeling that a great want of the farmers exists in 

 the matter of a proper horse for agricultural purposes, — a horse 

 uniting the qualities of great strength with reasonable speed, — 

 after husbanding their means for several years, have imported 

 two noble stallions and three fine mares, of the famous Per- 

 cheron breed. This horse, undoubtedly, is the best representa- 

 tive of a true agricultural horse in the world. And the horses 

 of the society are splendid types of their breed. 



Herbert says,* " Le Perche is a district of that portion of 

 France which was formerly known as Normandy, in which the 

 breed of the Norman horses has been most highly cultivated, 

 and exists in its most perfect form and improved condition. 

 The remarkable purity of the race is attested by the certainty 

 with which the stallions transmit to their progeny, begotten on 

 mares of a different race, their own characteristics, and the high 

 degree in which the offspring of tbe mares, bred to horses of 

 superior class, retain the better qualities of their dams." 



The Percheron horse is a cross of the old Norman war-horse, 

 of the iron-clad chivalry of the Middle Ages, — of William the 

 Conqueror and Richard Cceur de Lion, — with the light Andalu- 

 sian horse, which in its highest form was a pure barb of Morocco 

 imported into Spain by the Saracen Moors. 



" The bone and muscle, and much of the form of the Per- 

 cheron come from the old Norman war-horse ; and he gets his 

 spirit and action from the Andalusian. Docility comes from 



• Hints to Horse Keepers. Chapter 6. 



