THE RENAISSANCE FOLLOWING THE REVOLUTION 71 



The Breed "Modifies Itself."— In a memoir writ- 

 ten in 1883, M. Michel Fardouet, one of the dis- 

 tinguished breeders of his time, and the first 

 President of the Percheron Society of France, pre- 

 sented an absolutely correct statement concerning 

 the development of the heavy-weight Percheron of 

 modern days. Although without facts, names and 

 particulars to sustain his assertions, and admittedly 

 resting some of them upon remarks he had heard his 

 father make many years previously, M. Fardouet 

 could not have done better had he possessed — 

 though apparently he did not — a copy of the old 

 government records which we are now to reproduce. 

 This is what he said: 



' ' I have heard my father, who was a breeder, say 

 that the haras deteriorated the Percheron breed with 

 its demi-sang stallions, instead of improving as it 

 pretended to do. The breeders have renounced the 

 colts said to be improved, to raise only colts the 

 product of big horses, well proportioned and of pure 

 origin. 



"It may be boldly said that if the heart of The 

 Perche — that is to say the environs of Nogent-le- 

 Eotrou within a radius of 18 to 20 miles — has con- 

 served the purest type of its race of heavy Percheron, 

 it is thanks to the breeders and stallioners of the 

 region, such as Messrs. PeiTiot, father and grand- 

 father, Ducoeurjoly, Sr., the Vineaults, etc., etc. [Of 

 course M. Fardouet was too modest to mention his 

 own name, but really he would come very near the 

 head of the list.— Ed.] 



"It was about 1820 to 1840 that the Percheron 

 breed, the breed of horses that trotted quickly, com- 

 menced to modify itself. It has definitely refused to 



