60 



The fabulous prices sometimes paid for thorough- 

 bred horses, the practice of the most scientific breeders, 

 the teachings of the agricultural press, all writers on 

 heredity, the large sums of money spent annually for 

 the preservation of genealogical records, and, as indi- 

 cated above, the demands of public sentiment all indi- 

 cate the great value attached to pedigrees of the 

 animals used in breeding. The breeder of race horses 

 has learned from experience that the sire must have a 

 good pedigree, must be descended from a race of 

 winners to get winners. The successful breeder of 

 draught horses is no exception, and observes the now 

 almost universal practice of breeding by selection — a 

 practice based upon true principles. 



The laws of heredity are the same throughout all 

 animal life, and the practice which long experience has 

 demonstrated to be the correct one in the breedino- of 

 running horses and trotters is equally applicable to the 

 breedinof of draught horses. 



So long as half-breed horses, as well as those of un- 

 known breeding, are purchased in France at work- 

 horse prices and represented in this country as of equal 

 value to the finest and purest bred horses of France — 

 animals with established pedigrees tracing to the most 

 noted horses — so long will there be a powerful in- 

 centive to the " speculators " to ignore pedigrees. 

 The only safe course is for buyers to demand the pedi- 

 grees. All individuals or organizations that endeavour 

 to obstruct and destroy the usefulness and value of 

 pedigrees published in the stud books of France are 

 most certainly actuated by selfish motives. 



The Societe Hippique Percheronne, embracing in 

 its membership several hundred of the most prominent 



