484 
AMEEIOAISr AG-EIOULTUEIST. 
[NoVEMBEfl, 
Cross-bred Horses. 
The improvement in American horses within,a 
few years has been very marked. Heavy draft- 
horses were rare in New York twenty years ago. 
One saw in our city streets few horses weighing 
over twelve hundred pounds. Our vehicles were 
adapted to light horses, and expressmen and 
truckmen had to cai’ry 
light loads and go 
the oftener. It is not 
to be wondered at 
that foreigners, especi¬ 
ally English, Scotch, 
Dutch, and French, 
sadly missed the grand 
draft-hoises of their 
o.vn count! ies. Finally 
our horse - breeders 
waked up to a sense 
of the situation. A 
few French horses and 
Clydes were imported, 
and it was found that 
even with mares of 
moderate size, as a 
rule, excellent results 
were obtained, many 
of the cross - bred 
horses exhibiting an 
apparentimprovement 
upon their sires, hav¬ 
ing great substance 
and muscular power 
combined with a grace 
of action and style 
not possessed by their 
more ponderous pro¬ 
genitors. There is a 
great deal of good 
blood in American horses, and in a violent cross 
like that with the Fercheron or the Clyde, the blood 
in the mare often asserts itseif in refining the points 
of the draft-horse, reducing the heavy limbs and 
clumsy fetlocks of the Clydesdale, lightening the 
neck and bringing up the sloping rump of the 
Fercheron. 
Our eastern cities have, so to speak, consumed an 
immense number of horses of this general charac¬ 
ter, chiefiy geldings 
of course, for the 
half-bred mares have 
been kept upon the 
farm, and now-a- 
days,being bred back 
to the same style of 
horse as their own 
sires, are giving us a 
noble class of useful 
horses, which are 
becoming a striking 
feature of New York 
and Boston, at least, 
and no doubt in a 
less degree of other 
American cities. The 
express business has 
increased, as we all 
know, to enormous 
proportions; the 
companies are rich 
and use many horses. 
It is Indispensable to 
them to have good 
horses, and the pride 
of proprietors and 
employees is to have 
handsome ones, 
which, with their 
neat wagons .and ex¬ 
cellent harness — as 
showy as strict adap¬ 
tation to business 
will allow, make very handsome and imposing 
“turn-outs.” They require horses for quick 
draft, active, above medium weight, good walkers, 
and capable of trotting off now and then at a rat¬ 
tling pace. They do not want all large horses, and 
it is quite important that though heavy they 
should trot easily. It is not strange then that 
among the fine express horses we see many having 
half or two-thirds Fercheron blood. They have 
many of the points of the full-bloods—not infre¬ 
quently are of a dappled-gray color, short coupled, 
with sloping shoulders, straight backs, neat, well¬ 
shaped heads, great breadth of chest, loin, and 
rump ; fine, flat legs, clean and free from hair, and 
feet hard, round, and sound as any one could 
desire. They are willing and powerful pullers, 
rarely, if by true Fercheron sires, showing any de¬ 
fect like spavin or ring-bone. With a natural 
tendency to trot on the sire’s side, and this in no 
way decreased by the qualities inherited from their 
dams, it is not to be wondered at that those horses, 
though weighing sometimes as much as fifteen to 
sixteen hundred pounds, should be capable of 
taking an easy if not a rapid trot, even with a load. 
We present an engraving of a fine horse, show¬ 
ing off this valuable quality, not a fancy sketch, but 
a portrait of one of the type of which we write. 
and weighing about twelve hundred pounds. The 
picture of the horse standing still represents a 
fine, half-bred Clyde gelding, contrasting strongly 
with the Fercheron half-blood in length of body, 
but otherwise showing less distinctly the prevailing 
differences of style. The shoulders are straighter, 
the legs flatter and morehairy,and the head more or 
less delicate in proportion. Such horses are adapt¬ 
ed usually to slower 
motion, heavier draft, 
yet active, and capable 
of taking a trot if 
pushed. They average 
a good deal heavier 
than the true Ferehe- 
ron half-breeds, and 
even than those of the 
Norman cross, which, 
as is well known, is a 
heavier and coarser 
French breed, which 
has been largely im¬ 
ported on account of 
the difficulty of ob¬ 
taining the full-blood¬ 
ed Fercherons. There 
is, among the grades, 
much difference in 
weight, and the style 
is greatly modified by 
the dam, so that not a 
few of the Clyde cross 
are stylish enough for 
coach horses, and re¬ 
semble not a little that 
fine English breed, the 
Cleveland Bays, while 
others are heavy, and 
slow-moving, ponder¬ 
ous, and powerful— 
qualities which fit them for the heaviest draft 
purposes. Hence these find employment in 
moving safes, heavy timber, granite blocks, and 
other massive building stones, iron beams, pil¬ 
lars, trusses, and the like. In color, these Clyde 
horses are of a bright bay or brown, often dappled, 
frequently having one or more white feet, and in 
many respects remind one strongly of their sires.- 
They are great favorites, have usually excellent 
feet and legs, which 
are clean and free 
from pufis or bony 
enlargements, but 
generally hairy about 
the fetlocks. The 
shoulder is more 
upright, and better 
adapted to a dead 
pull and heavy draft. 
It really matters 
little which of these 
two excellent breeds 
is selected by farm¬ 
ers to breed their 
large, well - formed 
mares to. They must, 
however, be sure 
that the horse is 
pure - bred — either 
imported, or with a 
verified pedigree. 
The mere fact of 
importation is no 
proof that the horse 
is really good, but it 
is very strong pre¬ 
sumptive evidence 
that he is pure, for 
few men would be so 
foolish as to be at 
the trouble and ex¬ 
pense of importing a 
low-bred horse for 
breeding purposes. It is just as poor policy for any 
stock raiser to breed from half-bred horses, as it 
is from half-bred bulls, though the bad results are 
more immediately obvious in the case of neat cat¬ 
tle. Another point—if after a few years you have 
™ C F A - ■■ . 
Fig. 1.— A HALF-BRED FERCHERON HORSE. 
DraW7i (by Forbes) and Engraved for the American Agriculturist, 
Fig. 2 .— A HALF-BRED CLYDESDALE HORSE. 
Drawn (by Forbes) and Engraved for the American Agriculturist, 
