lO 
THE PERCHERON REVIEW 
soldier. The two Chouanards of Masle are soldiers 
in the artillery. M. Chapelle is no longer a soldier; 
I think he has been invalided. But notwithstanding 
all these departures the raising of horses is going 
on and in a good manner. The Percheron Society 
of France is working well, and parents retired from 
business are carrying on the work of their children. 
I think you will have some good animals after the 
war, because the army has taken very few Per- 
cherons. Some were taken at the beginning of the 
war — some good mares — but the forbidding of ex- 
portation has left some good animals in the country. 
Life in Nogent is very calm. One sees on market 
days only women or old people." 
An interpreter writes: 
"The exportation of horses from France cannot be 
expected to be allowed by the government before at 
least six months after the end of the present war." 
The very latest information furnished by one of 
my friends recently returned from France is that 
owing to the high prices of work horses many of 
the stallions have been castrated and sold as work 
horses to Paris, taking the place of animals requi- 
sitioned for military service; that the mares, except 
those with foals at side, are gone; that even though 
there were no government prohibition of the export 
of Percherons, there are exceedingly few horses in 
the district which are available, and that when this 
ban is raised it will be a long time before the busi- 
ness can be put on a normal basis. 
It is obvious, therefore, that the Percheron horse- 
breeding industry in France is being carried on 
under difficulties, the results of which cannot fail 
to be apparent in the quality and quantity of the 
product in the future. The American market at 
the present time is being supplied almost entirely 
with horses raised in this country. There is no 
longer any large supply left from previous importa- 
tions. The field is open to the American breeder 
alone. Is he in a position to seize the opportunity, 
to furnish stallion and mares of the required quality 
and so to establish himself in our home market that 
he need fear no competition from abroad at the end 
of this war.f* I believe he is. It resolves itself into 
this: Is foundation stock of the right quality here in 
sufficient quantity to produce enough high-class 
animals for the wants of the country.^ And have 
the American breeders in general learned to care for 
their growing colts in the way necessary to secure 
satisfactory results.'' 
In regard to the first part of this proposition, the 
secretary of the Percheron Society of America in- 
forms me that there are about 37,000 purebred 
Percheron brood mares in the United States at 
the present time, and that the registrations of colts 
should soon reach 10,000 per year. No mere esti- 
mate affords any clue as to the quality of these 
animals. There is great variation in their individ- 
ual excellence, and it is of course impossible to gather 
reliable statistics touching that phase of the subject. 
We all realize, however, that for years many of the 
importers have been doing their best to obtain the 
cream from all the French establishments both in 
stallions and mares. 
Owmg to the registration regulations of the Per- 
cheron Society of France, which requires that colts 
must not only be purebred but must be dropped 
within the Percheron District if they are to be re- 
corded, the business is confined to a small district, 
and it is easily possible each year to see all the 
good horses of the country and keep in close touch 
with the career of any noteworthy animal. So we 
know that, barring a few good animals exported 
to South America, practically all of the best have 
come to the United States. The results are quite 
evident here. One has only to travel about and 
see the class of mares in the hands of our Per- 
cheron producers today to realize that we have a 
really splendid foundation here for future work. 
Two- Year-Old Fillies 
During the past year I have been spending approxi- 
mately one-third of my time looking over American- 
bred stock, and I can say that the average individual 
merit of the mares in this country is higher than 
of those to be found abroad. On the other hand, I 
am sure that while many of our breeders are using 
high-class stallions others are not so well furnished. 
