CHAPTER II. 

 PERCHERON PROTOTYPES. 



The author of a "History of Ancient Perche," M. 

 Odolant-Desnos, remarks that the French are "more 

 inclined to make history than to write it." They 

 have developed the Percheron horse, but his real 

 origin is involved in almost total obscurity. Only 

 speculation can be indulged in concerning his re- 

 mote past, and strange to relate, until now few facts 

 have been available touching the evolution during 

 the past century of the heavy draft type, which, it 

 must be understood, is distinctly a modern creation. 

 Prior to the Napoleonic wars the Percherons were 

 practically all of the diligence type, and it was not 

 until about 1820 that a demand for heavier horses for 

 agricultural purposes manifested itself sufficiently 

 to induce a studied effort at increasing the size and 

 weight of the breed. The French government gave 

 this movement support, as will be shown presently, 

 and the farmers of The Perche persisted in their 

 efforts in this direction until the foundation was laid 

 upon which was made possible the production, at a 

 still later date, of the 2,000-pound horse ultimately 

 called for by the American trade. 



This one thing we know: that through centuries 

 of vicissitudes the farmers of The Perche clung to 



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