AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
Farm, G-arden, and Household. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN —Washington. 
oiAMffl® jsj©© & co.,1 ESTABLISHED IE 1842. ( $1.50 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. >• _ ' I SINGLE NUMBER, 15 CENTS. 
Office, 245 BBOABWAY. ) Publislicd also in German at $1.50 a Year. ( 4 Copies for $5 ; 10 for $12 ; 20 ormore, $leach. 
Entered according to Act of Congress in March, 18GS, by Orange Judd & Co., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. 
VOLUME XXVII.— No. 4. NE.W YORK, APRIL, 1868. NEW SERIES—No. 255. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
PERCHERON HORSES .— Drawn from Life and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
The name “ Perckeron ” is now given to the 
best bred horses of the province of Perche, in 
France, where, as also in Normandy and Flan¬ 
ders, a class of heavy, powerful draught horses 
lias been bred for years with great care. The 
origin of the breed is veiled in tlie obscurity of 
tradition, but it is supposed that its superior 
qualities are, in a measure at least, due to an 
intermixture of Barb blood. The qualities of 
the breed are such as adapt them preeminently to 
farm work. They are large, compact, very pow¬ 
erful animals; easily kept, of great endurance, 
and considerable speed, they show a remarkable 
grace and ease of action, and besides are noted 
for docility and kindness of disposition. It is 
many years since horses of this breed were first 
imported into this country. Wherever they were 
kept they left their mark upon tlie stock of the 
country in a way to demonstrate their value. 
Yet, as they do not win laurels on the race¬ 
course, and thousands of dollars at trials of 
speed and bottom at our agricultural fairs, but 
have simply been of value to the farmers and to 
the breeders of draught horses, they have nev¬ 
er been introduced and bred as they should 
have been, and are not generally known. 
Several recent importations attest the grow¬ 
ing interest taken in the Perckerons. The 
French Government and stock breeders are now 
fast becoming fully awake to tlie superiority 
of the noble race of horses which has its home 
upon the soil of France. We are more and 
more convinced that one great need of our 
agriculture is the possession of such a class ot 
horses as the cross with the Perckeron will give 
us. We see sometliingof a similar strain of blood 
in the Kanuck horse, which in a small compass 
possesses many of the excellent points and 
characteristics of the Perckeron. The sub¬ 
ject is one on which we shall hereafter have 
more to say, as the publishers will soon an¬ 
nounce anew work upon the Perckeron horse. 
