51 



• 

 mon appearance ; neck and shoulders thick and strongly arched at 

 the top and abundantly covered with hair ; back and loin short ; hips 

 salient and croup rounded off ; chest dcej) ; shoulders long ; limbs 

 bony, solid and well articulated, with great strenj.' i and rusticity ; 

 ■color chestnut. This breed furnishes good horses for tillery purposes. 

 They are raised more particularly in the districts of Rethel and 

 Fouquiers, in the department of Ardennais. The people are trying 

 to improve the breed by keeping it pure. 



T/te Poitevin breed is a breed that in its general development 

 comes near the Boulonnais breed, only it is generally bay in color, 

 while gray predominates among the Boulonnais. The Poitevin 

 breed is raised in the countrv around thi mouth of the rivers Loir 

 and Gironde, in the marshy lands of Poitou and Vendee. It is likely 

 the same breed as the Boulonnais, only through the effects of the 

 surroundings and of time (250 years) it has taken clearly defined 

 characteristics. It has a more common appearance, the limbs are 

 heavier, and it has become lymphatic ; it is the breed for raising 

 mules to perfection. It was during the time of Henry IV. that Bou" 

 lonnais horses were introduced into the marshes of Vendee. 



The Berrichonne breed belongs to the centre of France, taking its 

 name from the country where it is raised, viz : Berry. It is also a 

 draft breed, but not widely spread. The Paris Omnibus Company 

 buys yearly about six per cent, of these horses. 



All these breeds have fixed and well-defined characteristic features. 

 They are the produce of time, surroundings, and efforts of man. 

 Attempts were made about twenty or thirty years ago to cross them, 

 but fortunately the breeders had sounder ideas, and at the present 

 time they all understand the value of preserving in all their purity 

 our excellent breeds of draft horses, whose origin goes back for 

 many centuries. 



,It is not without impunity and without cause that the horse, find- 

 ing itself in different localities, with different needs, has modified 

 itself ; has, so to say, transformed itself according to the richness and 

 typography of the soil that fed it. The successive generations have 

 fixed the features derived from these ever -acting influences, and we 

 must respect this work by continually improving the breeds by a 

 rational selection of pure reproducers. Very fortunately the breeders 

 of Boulonnais and Perche have at all times resisted the attempts 

 made at different times to cross their breeds. They have preserved 



