THE RENAISSANCE FOLLOWING THE EEVOLUTION 73 



government, it must be said to the everlasting credit 

 of the authorities at Paris, that while they were pri- 

 marily and properly looking first after the interests 

 of the army at Le Pin, they at the same time actively 

 and efficiently promoted in a practical way, as we 

 shall presently prove, the aspirations of the people 

 of The Perche in their ambitions to increase the size 

 of the Percheron horse. 



The credit for this work of converting the old-time 

 trotting Percheron into a heavy horse is due, as M. 

 Fardouet truly says, to the breeders of the district 

 themselves. Not only is that statement correct, but 

 the date at which this important work was inaug- 

 urated is also given in accordance with the actual 

 fact. And most important of all, M. Fardouet sound- 

 ed the entire depth and breadth of the whole propo- 

 sition touching the composition of the modem Per- 

 cheron when he said that "about 1820 to 1840" the 

 breed "commenced to modify itself." These asser- 

 tions, unsupported as they were at the time by the 

 presentation of facts and figures, and unverified even 

 in the initial volume of the Percheron Stud Book of 

 France, are now to be rested upon the rock of the 

 archives of the French government. 



We shall first take up the record at the Haras du 

 Pin, and then present the long roll of honor of gov- 

 ernment-approved and subsidized Percheron stal- 

 lions, through the services of which the breed so 

 effectually modified itself during the eventful years 

 referred to in M. Fardouet 's singularly accurate 

 narration. 



