THE DRAFT BREEDS OF HORSES 13 
lar for general traffic and for bus and tram use in cities. 
The demand in the United States is for the larger types. 
5. Uses of Percherons.— The Percheron has little 
use except as a draft horse and as a producer of grade 
draft horses. The usefulness of this breed for draft 
purposes is so well known that it is unnecessary to dwell 
on that feature. But it is well to call attention to the 
fact that a large proportion of our draft teams contain 
Percheron blood, and that the results which follow a 
cross of a pure-bred Percheron stallion on a mare of other 
draft breeds, or even on the heavier types of our common 
mares, are most excellent. 
6. Distribution. — The Percheron breed has proved 
generally popular in nearly all parts of the United States, 
particularly in the farming regions where draft horses 
are raised for market. It is well adapted to farm condi- 
tions and meets with favor on the markets. Plumb 
(Types and Breeds of Farm Animals) quotes Weld as 
authority for the statement that in 1866 there were fully 
5000 Percherons in this country. Illinois has been the 
chief center for the breed, with the adjoining states of 
Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin following with 
lesser numbers. The same author states that between 
1851 and 1883 nearly 4000 Percherons were imported 
or bred in' the United States, and these were distributed 
about as follows: Illinois, 1834; Ohio, Indiana and 
Michigan, 577; Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, 424; 
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 280; Missouri, 
Kansas and Nebraska, 186. These figures are an index 
of the relative extensiveness of the Percheron breeding 
interests to-day, although it is likely the western states 
carry more compared with the others than they did at 
that early time. The southern states have become an 
