tradistinction to the field and the turf;* and 

 Nimrod occasionally employs the word road-, 

 horse as synonymous with stage coach horse. 

 It must be confessed that there is much con- 

 fusion in hippological nomenclature, partly in 

 consequence of the modern change and con- 

 tinued advance to a lighter standard of all the 

 classes and varieties of English horses for quick 

 movement. 



Although Yorkshire is the most decided 

 breeding county of the Race Horse in the 

 Kingdom, — the Rawcliffe Paddocks Company 

 alone having the past season forty-three, and 

 Sir Tatton Tykes thirty-seven, racing foals, — 

 the Agricultural Society leave him out of view, 

 (except as the progenitor of Hunters,) as hav- 

 ing other patrons in abundance, and perhaps 

 as not falling strictly within the description of 

 a " useful " horse, and recognize but the three 

 distinct classes of horses for service out of a 

 walk which I have considered, — Coaching or 

 Carriage Horses, Hunters and Roadsters; but 

 you will have perceived that one of these classes, 

 that of Hunters, is not a breed by itself. 



4. The horses for agricultural purposes, the 

 plough or the cart, in Great Britain, are inca- 

 pable of any other than a walking draft, and 

 are divided into the three following classes : 



The Suffolk Punch horses are characterized 

 by general uniformity of color, varying, how- 

 ever, in shade. In England they are called 

 "red" and "chestnut;" but we should, for the 

 most part, designate them as of a light yellowish 

 sorrel, with lighter manes, tails and legs. They 

 have often a blaze in the face and some white 

 feet, and are very plain in appearance, being 

 pig-eyed and having heavy, coarse head s. Their 

 strong predisposition to the numerous heredi- 

 tary diseases of the hock, and indeed unsound 

 legs and feet generally, are such insuperable 

 objections to the Suffolks, according to the old 

 proverb of "no feet no horse," that it would 

 not be worth while to criticise them farther, 

 more especially as I believe I am entirely sup- 

 ported in this estimate by Mr. Yager, the com- 

 petent and intelligent agent whom our public 

 spirited friend, Mr. Dulauy despatched to Eng- 

 land to bring over horses for him. I should 

 infer — it is impossible to know — from a com- 

 parison between the Suffolks of the present day 

 and the descriptions of the preexisting breed, 

 that crosses upon the original stock of thai 

 name with a view to their elongation, to give 

 them a more adequate stride, or enlargement 

 for additional weight in the collar, had not in 

 the aggregate result been successful, but had 



* A " Roadster 1 ' in the northern portion of the 

 United States fs a horse used in a light pleasure 

 vehicle. ' 



caused them to lose much of their former en- 

 ergy and pluck. At the last Annual Country 

 Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society the 

 Suffolk stallions were badly beaten. 



The other English race of agricultural horses, 



usually 



;signated the 



Cart Horse " is va- 



rious in color, but more frequently black. The 

 largest specimens are seen in the brewers' drays 

 in London, and, as you are aware, arc the hea- 

 viest horses in the world. This race was, to a 

 certain extent, modified by crosses of native 

 stallions upon some mares which Bakewell im- 

 ported from Holland. The horses of this breed, 

 I presume, would be dissolved by our sun in 

 summer, and' are moreover only adapted to cir- 

 cumstances in which no sort of activity but 

 merely massive power is required,—- very smooth 

 fiat land and perfect roads and the slowest 

 draught. 



The Scotch horses, the Clydesdales, of dif- 

 ferent colors, are for us, I am satisfied, the best 

 horses of the British Islands in the class of 

 exclusively walking draught. It is a signifi- 

 cant fact that the distinguished President of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 Mr. Pusey, employs them, and that General de 

 Lamoriciere* states that, from experiments 

 made in France, they despatched their work 

 much more quickly than either the SufFolk3 or 

 the indigenous races of France. They are 

 handsomer and more active than the Suffolks, 

 with longer limbs and longer bodies. ' This 

 conformation gives them a greater stride by 

 which they make more rapid progress, but it 

 may augment the expensiveness of their keep. 

 Tradition refers the origin of this breed to an 

 importation, by one of the Dukes of Hamilton, 

 of Flanders stallions which were crossed on the 

 native mares of the county of Lanark, in the 

 vale of the Clyde. 



Though the French have occasionally im- 

 ported British horses, which are larger than 

 their own, for agricultural purposes, I found' 

 the universal opinion in France to be that they 

 had nothing to envy the British in the way of 

 horses for slow draught, (gros trait,) and that 

 they prided themselves .very much on a valua- 

 ble, hardy and energetic race, mostly of a gray 

 color, properly called Percheron, from their na- 

 tive district. Le Percbe, but which our Ameri- 

 can writers have vaguely styled Norman, (aa 

 the synonynic of French, perhaps,) from the 

 tact of having first seei^ them ifl the diligences 

 in Normandy on the way to Paris. While 

 many of the larger animals of this breed, which 

 pais by Ir.sei s.be gradaLoi s into ti c Loulon- 

 uais, i the bh-gcbt ai d coarsest hen e cf Frai_o J 



ilapport au conse'd 



Haras. 



