A PrencJi Hards cind 1 for so Faii'. 
405 
The Haras, says M. Gayot, should only have the best horses, 
for keep is costly ; its aim the light draught-horse, more or less 
heavy, but with action ; an essential principle, however, is to 
extend the hand of apielioration to every element. The State 
intervenes because private purchasers cannot afford the expense, 
and obviously stud horses must be kept in the country ; the 
French breeders are careless, and the foreign imports of stallions 
as a novelty are useful by awakening in the breeder some 
necessary interest. M. Gayot claims that the Haras has done 
much for the cart-horse, and generally it deserves credit for 
sowing the seeds of extended production. The Haras has many 
enemies and great difficulties ; in France, what an administrator 
may propose, events and revolutions dispose. Much is hoped 
from the law of 1874', enacted in order to endeavour to secure 
continuity in Haras management : and from the incomplete and, 
as regards the owners, the somewhat hard law of 1885 regu- 
lating the use of private stallions. Then, as has been stated, 
there is an important party — Anglophobists — who say, "No State 
meddling," desiring abstention from administrative intervention. 
I heard from many quarters, and M. Gayot with bitterness of 
feeling refers to the fact, that the last Empire, 1852-70, had 
an evil effect on French horse-breeding. The Jockey Club — 
les turfmen — gambled, betted, amused themselves, and inter- 
vened ; all the cart stallions were ejected from the State 
Haras — a most disastrous abandonment — to make room for 
more English thoroughbreds and more Anglo-Norman half- 
breds. There are few large fortunes in rural France ; the 
tempted farmer, poor and needy, sells male and female alike ; 
he must have an immediate profit. Foals are pampered to 
please the Americans — cake, milk, phosphate of lime, dried 
blood, and that sort of thing. The French cart-horse is en- 
dangered by the Americans, who are omnivorous ; they give 
great prices, they take everything, colts and all, and the French 
Government even cannot compete with these Americans. 
Well may M. Gayot say there is no need to battle further in 
favour of the utility of published records of origin — les livres 
d'origines, le stud-book — the thing is now understood, the battle 
is won. The French Draught-horse Society of America have a 
Stud-book — " Le Stud-book Percheron Americain," " The Stud- 
book Percheron Normand-Americain," the National Norman 
Horse Association. The French Percheron Stud-book failed, but 
American dealers took it up again and blew it out with trade 
pufiF. The Americans, M. Gayot says, insist upon a false Per- 
cheron ; the American Percherons are now no longer hons clie- 
vaux, but gros chevmtx. Arab pedigrees have for long in France 
been carefully preserved ; the English Stud-book followed, it is 
