26 POWER AND THE PLOW 



The Percheron, Clydesdale, Belgian, Shire, and Suffolk are 

 the most prominent in England and America, the Percheron 

 being by far the most popular. 



The heavy horse of Flanders was crossed with beautiful 

 Arabs, taken from the Saracens at Tours, in 732 A. D., after 

 the world's greatest battle. To this mating we owe the modern 

 Percheron, whose fire, beauty, action, and massive utility have 

 carried him to the front. Along the Clyde, we think of the 

 bagpipe and the Scottish Lowlands, where his strong, lanky 

 frame, his rapid, easy action, and his endurance on long hauls 

 have made him popular. The Shire is descended from the low- 

 built English war horse, which even the Romans were forced 

 to admire when they landed in Great Britain under Caesar. 

 He is now best adapted for slow, heavy work. The Belgian 

 is a direct descendant of the old horse of Flanders. He, too, 

 is heavy, massive, stocky, and adapted to slow, heavy work 

 in a congested city thoroughfare. The Suffolk is muscular, 

 active, durable, of lighter weight, and especially adapted for 

 rather diversified farm purposes. These breeds have all been 

 widely used for crossing with grade stock to produce more 

 efficient motors. In America the bulk of the improvement 

 of the native horse has been effected since the importation in 

 1851 of Louis Napoleon, the first great Percheron stallion 

 imported. 



It is obviously impossible to consider the horse simply as a 

 machine, since in nature he is self -feeding, self -controlling, self- 

 repairing unless seriously injured, and self -reproducing func- 

 tions of which the ordinary traction engine is incapable. 

 Certain disadvantages, however, tend to offset these good 

 qualities, such as the necessity for education prior to useful- 

 ness; frequent attention if confined; shelter from heat and cold, 

 as well as from rain and snow; variety of foods; frequent 

 rest; protection from disease and other enemies; and 

 use in comparatively small power-units. Theoretically, 

 according to Thurston, the animal is not a heat engine. 



