THE NEW CENTUEY DAWNS AUSPICIOUSLY 421 



as well. Its operations began in 1901 with the pur- 

 chase of a number of American-bred mares. This 

 was followed in 1902 by the importation of more 

 than 50 mares and several stallions, and additional 

 importations were made in 1903, 1904 and later. 

 Ugolin 31488 (46131) wasthe first stallion used, but 



,he sired only a few purebred colts. 



y\ Dr. Hartman was very wealthy and ambitious to 

 build up the greatest Percheron breeding establish- 

 ment in America. He bought a number of the best 

 mares from the Dunham stud, several from A. P. 

 Nave, and purchased the best he could obtain in 

 FranceXjHe also secured at a long price the stallion 

 Besigue, the most noted sire used in France between 

 1893 and the time of his purchase by Dr. Hartman 

 in 1904. Unfortunately the horse died on shipboard, 

 so that Dr. Hartman 's plan of bringing over the 

 greatest sire France possessed to head his breeding 

 establishment failed of completion. He had more 

 than 120 Percheron mares in his stud in 1904, but 

 results were extremely unsatisfactory. A large num- 

 ber of the mares were worked in teams at heavy 

 hauling by teamsters who were every thing but 

 horsemen. Heavy pulling and backing of the mares 

 while in foal resulted in the loss of many foals. 

 The plan of running the mares in large bands 

 favored the spread of abortion, which cut down the 

 number of foals produced. The supposed tendency 

 of imported mares to be shy breeders on account 

 of acclimation fever for the first 2 or 3 years after 

 importation was another retarding factor, so that 



