BREEDING OF HORSES. 301 



tion of the blood from which they spring ; and the fact that 

 their progeny from dark mares is so certain to follow the 

 color of the sire is a proof of the potency of the blood ; 

 and I trust that nobody will raise an objection to these 

 horses because they are gray. We have had enough poor 

 horses of other colors ; let us have some good gray horses, 

 if we have to set a new fashion. 



As there are but two minutes more for me to get out of 

 this place, I leave 3^ou to worii away on what I have said. 



Maj. Alvord. 1 want to add a few words in regard to 

 these Percheron horses. In the first place, there is one 

 point as to the reliance which can be placed on the horses 

 imported as breeders. The French government, in its 

 paternal rehitions to the agriculture of all France, has its 

 breeding stations all through Normandy, where it holds tor 

 service, at reasonable rates, stud horses, exactly as the 

 Massachusetts Society is now offering thera in this State. 

 Besides that, those stations exercise, under government au- 

 thority, a supervision over all the breeding horses in France, 

 and every whole horse, having arrived at a certain age, has 

 to go into one of those government stations, and there pass 

 an examination, and, unless he comes up to the standard, he 

 is then and there castrated, and not allowed to propagate 

 any imperfection within the limits of France, nor to be sold 

 out of the country as a French horse. The owner of an 

 imperfect whole horse in France is not allowed to use him 

 as a breeder, or to sell him, but he is castrated on his hands. 

 But with this exception, castration is seldom performed in 

 France, because stud horses are used as much as mares for 

 working animals, often going in the same teams. This ani- 

 mal, with its additional weight, keeps the qm'ck action and 

 other advantages of the lighter-built horse, and, despite the 

 increased weight, you are able to keep them very easily ; 

 they are light feeders. 



A year ago last August, a stallion and four mares came 

 into my care, landed from the same boat in New York, pur- 

 chased directly from their breeders in Normandy, and they 

 have been constantly handled by me from that time to this. 

 We purchased a horse rather larger than those obtained by 

 the Massachusetts Society because, being near New York 



