THE FRENCH STORY RESUMED 225 



and honesty, and in his recent death contemporary 

 Percheron breeding in France lost its leading light. 

 He leaves a son Louis, who for some years has been 

 active as successor to his father in the Percheron 

 trade and who during the great war has been sta- 

 tioned in the United States as an officer of the French 

 military service buying horses for the armies of 

 France. 



Credit Due These Pioneers. — From the foregoing 

 it will appear that before the era of the foundation 

 of the stud book there were men of good judgment, 

 staunch admires of the Percheron breed, who united 

 their efforts and created departmental and local com- 

 mittees for the purpose of improving the breed. To 

 these men must be paid a special tribute of grati- 

 tude, whether they were in the government service, 

 rich landowners of the district or only small farmers 

 or tenants. They were not stimulated in the old 

 days by big prices paid by importers. Some Perche- 

 rons had been exported to different countries of 

 Europe between 1820 and 1870, notably to Italy, 

 Prussia, Saxony and Russia. And speaking of this 

 period M. Paul Chouanard says: 



"Before the Crimean war M. Joseph Chouanard, 

 then residing at La Touche 1854-1855, sold during 

 some years a number of Percheron stallions and 

 mares to a Russian general named Schweider, who 

 used to remain for a week at La Touche at each 

 voyage. At the Hamburg Show (Germany) in 1863 

 3 Percheron stallions owned by a gentleman from 

 Saxony took prizes." 



The American people were the first, however, to 



