THE RENAISSANCE FOLLOWING THE REVOLUTION 75 



In the list of stallions kept by the French govern- 

 ment at this establishment one may search in vain 

 for draft stallions during the eighteenth century. It 

 was not until about 1808, according to the haras 

 documents, that the authorities commenced to pur- 

 chase heavy draft stallions, and then only on a very 

 restricted scale. For instance, we find in the list for 

 1809 mention made of Le Pierrot, standing about 15.3 

 hands, "dapple-gray" (gris pommele), and classed 

 simply as a " draft stallion. ' ' It seems to have been 

 general during the initial years of the introduction 

 of draft stallions at this stud to class these horses 

 merely as "draft" (de trait), without mentioning 

 the breed. There can be little doubt, however, that 

 these early dapple-gray horses were Percherons. Sit- 

 uated in the borders of the Percheron country, it is 

 but reasonable to take this view, and this deduction 

 is corroborated by the fact that on the rare occasions 

 on which a Cauchois or Boulonnais stallion was em- 

 ployed he was invariably designated as such in the 

 records. From 1809 up to the year in which we find 

 the word "Percheron" mentioned for the first time 

 in the list, those designated simply as "draft stal- 

 lions" appear with increasing frequency, and nearly 

 all of them are described as "grays." 



Curiously enough, the first instance found where 

 a Percheron stallion is specifically classed as such 

 is in the ' ' Controle des etalons du Pin, ' ' sent by the 

 director, the Count de Maille, to the director-general 

 of the haras at Paris, under date of Aug. 17, 1822. 

 The entry is that of Desarme 538: "Percheron draft, 



