DRAFT HORSES. 137 



They, as a breed, have become the wonder of the world for 

 their rapid draft — their ability to move a heavy load at a 

 rapid gait. 



Road Qualities of the Percheron Horse. 



A gray mare of Oine, France, in 1845, performed the fol- 

 lowing match : Harnessed to a tillbury, she started from Ber- 

 nay at the same time as the mail courier from Rouen to Bor- 

 deaux, and arrived before it at Alencon, having made fifty-five 

 and three-fifths miles over a hilly and difficult road in four 

 hours and twenty-four minutes. 



In 1864, a gray mare seven years old, harnessed to a till- 

 bury, traveled fifty-eight miles and back on two consecutive 

 days, going at a trot and without being touched with a whip. 

 This was also over a hilly road from Lyons-la-Foret to Pont 

 Audemer and back, a difficult and hilly road. 



The following time was made: First day, the distance, 

 fifty-eight miles, was trotted in four hours, one minute, and 

 thirty-five seconds ; the second day, in four hours, one minute, 

 and thirty seconds. The thirteen and three-quarters last miles 

 was made in one hour, although at about the forty-first mile the 

 mare was obliged to pass her stable to finish the distance. 



When we take into consideration all the desirable qualities 

 in a heavy horse for draft purposes, and especially for moving 

 heavy loads at a rapid rate, and for agriculturaipurposes, where 

 weight and strength are indispensable, and to continuous work 

 in cities on pavements, so trying to the feet of all horses, and 

 especially so to those breeds disposed to be flat-footed, — then 

 in the Percheron we find so many desirable qualities as to 

 render him incomparable with all other breeds. Vive la 

 Percheron ! 



ENGLISH DRAFT OE SHIRE HORSE. 



This most excellent breed of heavy draft horses are, unques- 

 tionably, direct descendants of the famous breed of large black 

 horses that Prof. Low — an English writer on horses — thinks 

 inhabited, in a wild state, the vast regions of marsh and forest 



