EVOLUTION PEOM WITHIN 101 



tenacious than those of The Perche. None knows 

 better than the Percheron farmer himself which 

 type of horse suits his needs best. 



The possible influence of an introduction of a few 

 Picardy mares near Montdoubleau about the begin- 

 ning of the 19th century has been grossly exagger- 

 ated. We have had an examination made . of the 

 original sheets containing full descriptions of the 

 native mares served in The Perche by the approved 

 Percheron stallions from the time these approved 

 stallions first began their work, and only in a few 

 instances do we find the name "Picardy," as applied 

 to the "provenance" of the mares, mentioned. This 

 blood was quickly eliminated, as is shown by ref- 

 erence to later documents. But long before the or- 

 ganization of the stud book the purity of the breed 

 was almost guaranteed by the fact that only the most 

 typical sires were allowed to serve mares. Each de- 

 partment had very stringent rules to assure the 

 purity of the breed. No stallion could serve mares 

 without official permission first having been obtained. 



As to Color. — "With respect to the black color 

 which became popular some years ago much has 

 been said by way of insinuating that this came from 

 an outside source. There have always been plenty 

 of black mares in The Perche. Precise information 

 touching this is to be found in the government serv- 

 ice sheets. Every stallion sheet that we have had 

 examined, beginning about 1820, alludes to black 

 mares of the "Percheron" breed. The breeders of 

 The Perche, like other men, cater to their customers, 



