392 A HISTORY OP THE PERCHEBON HORSE 



veloping the interest in Percherons during this per- 

 iod. The existing stock in the United States was 

 badly scattered, much of it unrecorded and a great 

 deal of it in the hands of men who were giving their 

 Percherons no particular attention. Leading dealers 

 gathered this stock together and distributed it 

 through private sales and public auctions into the 

 hands of a large number of new admirers of the 

 breed; they also sold Percheron mares to many small 

 breeders who lacked the means and acquaintance- 

 ship necessary to seek out and assemble them. In 

 many instances dealers bought fillies or young mares, 

 bred them to their own stallions and sold them as 

 bred mares, thereby receiving credit for breeding a 

 vastly larger number of animals than they would 

 otherwise have had. 



Importers reaped an unprecedented harvest. G-ood 

 imported stallions were syndicated all over the 

 United States and Canada on the company plan at 

 prices ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 each. These 

 prices were abnormal, but importers justified them 

 on the ground of the heavy expense involved in 

 placing horses by this method and on the additional 

 plea that most of the horses were sold on long-time 

 payments. This plan of selling horses did result 

 in distributing thousands of high-class stallions 

 throughout the United States. The larger portion 

 of these went into communities where they were 

 bred exclusively to grade mares, so that the Per- 

 cheron breed lost the services of many of the best 

 breeding stallions brought over during this time. 



