JACKS, JBNNETS AND MUtES 109 



new society is never burdened. This committee re- 

 gards many other things of equal importance to 

 height, and pedigree is made to play a much more 

 important part than with us. 



As confirmatory of what I have said of this breed, 

 I note the following from A. B. Allen, in the New 

 York Tribune, and copied in the Farmer's Home Jour- 

 nal, of Louisville. After speaking of other breeds, 

 and their introduction into this country, he says: 



"The Poitou is the most perfectly formed of all 

 American jacks imported; not so tall as the Majorca, 

 but more powerful for his inches, with greater weight, 

 more bone and superior muscle. The ordinary stock 

 is held in France at $1,000 to $1,500 each, and the 

 choicer ones command $2,000 to $3,000. The prices 

 are so high as to almost forbid importation. His 

 mules are unequaled, and sell on an average from 

 fifty to one hundred per cent higher than the get of 

 any other jack. This makes it profitable to breed 

 from him, even at the high price he costs. The breed- 

 ers of Poitou have a stud book for the record of their 

 stock, so there can be no mistake as to purity. Their 

 mules which I saw in Switzerland were the finest 

 and most powerful of any class that has come under 

 my observation. I was informed that their French 

 dams were of the Percheron or common farm stock 

 or their grades, which helped to give to their off- 

 spring greater size and power, together with superior 

 form. There are large numbers of mares now in the 

 United States, half and three-quarter grades of the 

 French, Scotch and English breeds of draft stallions. 

 These mares, in size and quality, are equal to the 

 French, and may be bred to jacks with great advan- 



