THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



53 



blood. In regard to the Hackney or riding 

 horse, for example, Youatt says, "when ap- 

 proaching to thoroughbred, he may be a splen- 

 did animal, but he will scarcely be fitted for 

 his duty. His legs will be too slender; his 

 feet too small; his stride too long; and he will 

 rarely be able to tret." 



The Cleveland Bay hits the medium between 

 too little and too much blood; and being of a 

 well defined and long established race, (a con- 

 sideration of the highest importance in breed- 

 ing,) he may be counted upon to transmit his 

 distinctive qualities with the greatest certainty. 

 Having made up my mind, upon long and 

 careful examination and comparison, in favor 

 of this breed, my next object was to obtain 

 the purest and best specimen of it. In this I 

 esteem myself very fortunate. The French 

 government, which spares no expense in ob- 

 taining the best types from abroad for the im- 

 provement of their native races, bought of two 

 of the most celebrated breeders in Yorkshire, 

 in 1849, a stallion and a brood mare of the 

 purest Cleveland stock, and placed them in 

 the National Haras at Versailles. The colt 

 you have seen at Castle-Hill is the progeny 

 of these two English parents foaled at Ver- 

 sailles. I bought him directly of the Govern- 

 ment at the age of fifteen months, and have 

 thus the highest possible guarantee for the 

 genuineness and purity of his descent. I saw 

 both his parents, and nobler animals for power, 

 symmetry and action combined, I never saw. 

 Being a thorough believer in the principles of 

 breeding, the moment I saw them I determined, 

 if possible, to become the owner of their off- 

 spring; and I have the most sanguine hopes 

 that he will fulfil all the expectations I then 

 formed. 



You suggest the expediency of buying a 

 Norman horse here and sending him out to 

 Virginia. You will have seen from what I 

 have already said that the Norman horse, pro- 

 perly so called, is of the same general descrip- 

 tion as the Cleveland, but decidedly inferior 

 to him, in the opinion of the French themselves, 

 as all their standard treatises on the horse 

 abundantly prove. The particular character- 

 istics you mention as belonging to the Norman 

 horse are in reality the distinctive attributes 

 of the Breton and the Percheron races, of which 

 I have spoken with some detail in the first part 

 of this letter. You had in view, I have no 

 doubt, the description of a peculiar and valua- 

 ble race of French horses contained in an 

 extract given by Youatt from the work of 

 Monsieur Houel on the varieties of the Horse 

 in France. From the connection in which 

 Youatt introduces that extract, it was quite 

 natural that you should consider it as applying 

 to the Norman horse, but it is applied by the 

 writer himself to the Breton and Percheron 

 horse. 



These two races of horses are very valuable 

 for the particular service in which they are em- 

 ployed here— that of the diligence and the post- 

 chaise; and are, doubtless, excellent also for 



farm work. They are the only races of great 

 practical value which can be considered at this 

 time as peculiar to France. But there are two 

 considerations which, in my opinion, render 

 it very doubtful whether the benefits of their 

 introduction into the United States would jus- 

 tify the trouble and expense of attempting to 

 transplant them. In the first place, they are 

 not of a thoroughly defined and long established 

 type, and you could not count, therefore, with 

 any degree of certainty on their reproduction. 

 Monsieur Gayot, the late Inspecteur-General 

 of the Haras here, and who, of all the French 

 writers on the horse, unites in the highest de- 

 gree science and experience, says expressly 

 that neither of them have that essential cha- 

 racter of a type— the faculty of reproducing 

 itself constan tly and certainly out of the sphere 

 of the local influence and particular circum- 

 stances which created and fashioned it.* In 

 the second place, if you could count upon the 

 reproduction and transmission of the breed, 

 its uses would be limited to one particular 

 service, and that of the rudest and coarsest 

 kind, whereas the actual condition and wants 

 of our country seem to call for the introduc- 

 tion of some master type, from which by suita- 

 ble modifications we can obtain horses of the 

 best quality adapted to all the various pur- 

 poses of social and domestic life. 



If, however, these considerations should not 

 have the weight in the minds of our friends 

 which I attach to them, nothing will afford 

 me more pleasure than to be of use to them 

 in procuring, as I think I should be able to do 

 through competent persons, good specimens 

 of any of the races of the domestic animals 

 v* hich may have attracted their attention here. 

 The highest gratification to me, in my present 

 separation from my native land, is to have an 

 opportunity, however slight, of showing the 

 deep interest I feel in the daily pursuits and 

 fortunes of my countrymen, and especially 

 those of my brother farmers. 

 I remain, my dear sir, 



Very truly and faithfully yours, 



W. C. Rivks. 



F. G. Ruffin, Esq. 



IRISH POTATOES. 



We regret very much that the query of our 

 correspondent came too late to be answered in 

 this number, the Editor not having received it 

 until the 24th instant, when he had no time, 

 consistently with other pressing editorial en- 

 gagements, to give it proper consideration. 

 An answer of some sort will certainly be fur- 

 nished by March, which will not be too late 

 for the main crop. 



* See Etudes Hippologiques, Vol. III. p. 174-6. 



