58 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 
superior foresight with which France has provided for 
her cavalry and other army corps in the matter of re- 
mounts. It is a national work, the matured fruit of 
which will be fully apparent only in a national crisis when 
most needed. 
56. History in France. — In the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, the French government, by establish- 
ing the Administration des Haras, began the systematic 
improvement of their horses, and as early as 1690 there 
were 1600 stallions known as “royal” or “ approved.” 
During the many years of disturbance in France, changes 
of government and national reverses, the work has gone 
steadily on to the present day. In 1879, there were 
3239 stallions in the government service, and at the 
present time provision is made for the maintenance of 
3300 government stallions, mostly kept in that part of 
France west of Paris, and particularly in the province 
or district of Normandy. It is in this section that the 
breed has had its greatest growth, and it was because of 
this that some of the earlier importations were called 
Anglo-Normans. In 1833, a stud-book was established, 
and in 1870 the department of agriculture was given con- 
trol of the government horse-breeding interests under the 
supervision of a director general and staff of inspectors. 
The government control is exercised in a way very similar 
to that described in discussing the Percheron, except that 
the government, in the case of the coach horses, does most 
of the breeding, and consequently branded stallions 
among the French Coachers are not so common as among 
the draft breeds. According to the report of the Director 
General for 1903, about fifteen hundred stallions owned 
by private parties were approved and authorized. The 
same classes are made as in the case of the draft breeds, 
