232 A HISTORY OP THE PBECHERON HORSE 



is one of merely academic' interest. Those who 

 ihade the entry of course aeted in the utmost good 

 Mth. They had the tradition, and published it 

 for what it was worth. They had no occasion for 

 doubting its accuracy at the time. They had not 

 the government archives before them. Criticism 

 upon this head must therefore stop with the state- 

 ment that those who were doing this pioneer work 

 might have gone to Paris and searched, as we have 

 now done, the manuscripts and records in the 

 possession of the French Government. It is safe 

 to say that had the Percheron breeders of France 

 and America, who cooperated in launching this 

 difficult enterprise in 1883, known of the mine of 

 information then existing in Paris concerning the 

 origin of the modem heavy draft type of Perche- 

 ron horses, developed for the first time in this 

 volume, they would have been quick to utilize it. 

 The breed had a foundation history behind it which 

 was not properly reflected by the earlier stud books. 

 In other words, the Percheron of the ante-stud 

 book days was a stronger-bred horse than is indi- 

 cated by the existing foundation records. He is 

 not the creation of the past 30 years. The pedi- 

 grees really run back at least to the era of the 

 first Napoleon, but the missing links cannot now 

 be gathered up. 



