DRAFT HORSES. 139 



There have been within the past few years many choice 

 specimens of this noble animal imported to America. Among 

 the importers of note may be recorded George E. Brown & Co. 

 of Aurora, 111., Blair Brothers, Aurora, 111., Gailbreth Brothers, 

 Janesville, Wis., etc. Besides those imported into the United 

 States there have been many brought into Canada. 



The greatest objection to the original Shire or great cart 

 horse of England, except as a shaft horse to the heavy trucks 

 of London and Liverpool, was its abominable slowness, ren- 

 dering this breed unpopular with plowmen and teamsters ex- 

 cept those of the heaviest work ; but by judicious crossings on 

 breeds of more activity, the English draft horse, as we know 

 him here in America, is a different animal as regards activity, 

 from the original cart-horse of fifty years ago. 



THE CLYDESDALE HOESE. 



The Clydesdale breed now so extensively diffused through- 

 out the United States and Canada, derives its origin from the 

 same source as the English draft or Shire horse ; they, too,, 

 originated from the great black horse breed of Flanders, Lan- 

 arkshire being the original home of the Clydes. 



They were introduced into Scotland somewhere in the 13th 

 century, and many of the best of this breed in Scotland were 

 the descendants of a noted black mare formerly the property 

 of William, the Earl of Douglas, one of the ancestors of the 

 Duke of Hamilton, who, in later years, became a noted breeder 

 of Clydesdales of Scotland. 



There can be no question but there has been an almost con- 

 stant mingling of the blood of the Shire and the cart horse of 

 England with that of the Clydesdales of Scotland, and at the 

 present day the difference between the two breeds is so very 

 slight that many intelligent breeders of both England and 

 Scotland recommend that they should be classed as a single 

 breed and that but one stud-book should be maintained for 

 them. Of late years, however, it is supposed that each breed 



