472 A HISTORY OF THE PEBCHEBON HOBSE 



horses were not equal in type or utility to the Mon- 

 tana Percheron grades I had been accustomed to. 

 Having fully made up my mind that the Percheron 

 horse was what was required in western Canada, I 

 set to work as soon as I was able, to try and obtain 

 some of the right kind. I secured and used some 

 Percheron stallions on our grade mares, and in 1898 

 we purchased, from James Mauldin of Dillon, Mont., 

 his entire herd of Percherons, known as the Diamond 

 bunch. This comprised about 35 head of Perche- 

 rons of excellent type, conformation and quality. 

 They were heavy boned, matronly mares, with the 

 best of underpinning, and these mares proved to be 

 producers of the kind of horses which breeders are 

 always looking for. "We also obtained about 1200 

 head of grade Percherons from Mauldin at the same 

 time, and added these to our holdings of grade 

 horses. 



"The same year that we bought the Mauldin 

 Percherons, we purchased the tops from the Eiver 

 Side Eanch Company's Percheron stud. These were 

 known as the H. F. mares. These, added to the 

 Diamond mares obtained from Mauldin, gave us 

 the foundation of our present Percheron stud. 



"Among the earliest and best sires we used were 

 Paris 12016 and Presbourg 29982 (48649). Both 

 gave us good results, and Presbourg particularly 

 proved to be an extremely prepotent sire of high- 

 class brood mares., Experienced judges, in going 

 over the band of mares in 1914 with a view to se- 

 lecting the brood mares of the best type, picked on 

 more Presbourg mares than mares of any other 

 breeding, and these matrons have been noted as 

 among the best producers in our stud." 



In 1906 Mr. Lane went to France and selected a 

 few mares. He subsequently made importations in 



