30 A HISTORY OP THE PERCHERON HORSE 



The Perche in 1652, ' ' striking terror everywhere and 

 stealing horses." 



In a letter in the National Library, Paris, dated 

 March 7, 1628, and written by one Michel Denyau, 

 a notary of Montdoubleau, we read: "The Perche 

 has suffered very much ; the army has carried off the 

 majority of our mares." In another written June 

 7, 1651, the writer complains: "The gendarmerie 

 has ruined everything in The Perche, and publicly 

 s-tolen everything Jt 'caine across in the way of 

 horses. . . • M. de Villir informs me that the 

 gendarmerie has ruined everything in the Chartres 

 country and stolen the horses." 



Still further confirmatory of the assertion that 

 The Perche has always been pre-eminently a region 

 fitted to the raising of live stock, and especially 

 horses, we find the following eighteenth century let- 

 ter from the Intendant of Alengon to the Intendant 

 of Tours on the subject of rumors relative to the 

 cornering of the wheat crop: 



"Have no faith, sire, in the reputation for an 

 abundance of wheat which we are said to possess. 

 I have already had the honor of calling your atten- 

 tion to the fact that in all the Election of Alengon 

 there is not produced enough wheat to feed us three 

 months. Our culture consists in grass and hay to 

 fatten our steers, which we get from Poitou, and to 

 raise very fine horses, which make our principal 

 commerce. ' ' 



A People Devoted to Their Own. — All the world 

 has wept with Longfellow over the fate of the 

 Acadian farmers of Grand Pre. The attachment of 



