THE CULTIVATOR. 
193 
NORMAN HORSE “ DILIGENCE”—(Fig. 102.) 
The Property of Edward Harris, Esq. Moorestown, New Jersey. 
As a member of the New-Yorlc State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, I feel under great obligations to Mr. Edward 
Harris of Moorestown, N. J. for his generous spirit and 
liberality, in bringing,at great expense and some risk, to 
exhibit at our State Fair, in Sept, last, his splendid Nor¬ 
man horse Diligence, whose portrait adorns this No. of 
the Cultivator, and added so much to the interest of the 
exhibition. 
Mr. H. is a gentlemen of fortune, and while spending 
a few years on the continent, and when travelingby pub¬ 
lic conveyance in France, was often surprised with the 
great power and endurance of their horses, as used be¬ 
fore their heavy and cumbrous diligences. It was not 
uncommon for four of them to perform seven miles with¬ 
in the hour, with from 12 to 14 passengers. Mr. II. was 
so well convinced from what fell under his observation, 
of their great superiority over the horses in this country, 
and that a cross of this breed on our mares, was best cal¬ 
culated to produce “the horse of all work;” uniting 
great strength, with sufficient activity for the road, the 
plow, &e. that he determined to import some, and make 
the attempt, and with this view, he accordingly pur¬ 
chased two stud horses and three mares. One of the hor¬ 
ses died on the passage, and one of the mares had her leg- 
broken on one of the ears at Jersey city. Nothing daunt¬ 
ed by these misfortunes, and not willing to be foiled in 
his purpose, he sailed again for France in the same ves¬ 
sel, and returned with Diligence. Another of the mares 
died the next year, leaving a colt. Mr. H. has now a 
number of full bloods, as well as several half breeds, all 
promising to fulfil his expectations. 
For a further account and history of this horse, I will 
refer the reader to the following, which appeared in the 
9th No. of the YIth vol. of the Farmers’ Cabinet: 
“Mr. Editor —I promised to give you some account of my 
horse Diligence, and of the race from which he springs, to ac¬ 
company the engraving from Woodside’s portrait of him. 
“ Diligence is of a handsome dapple-grey color, and measures 
15 hands under the standard ; he was purchased by his present 
owner in 1839, at the Fair of Guibray, a small village near Fa- 
laise, in Normandy, the birth-place of William the Conqueror. 
This fair lasts fifteen days; and being held in a district the 
most celebrated in France for the breeding of horses, and the 
first three days of th efair being devoted to their sale, it is re¬ 
sorted to by dealers from all parts of the country, particularly 
from Paris, for the supply of the diligences, and for post and 
carriage horses. This fair is largely supplied with the English 
breed raised in Normandy, and with its crosses upon the French 
stock, as well as with their peculiar race, (of which Diligence 
is a true type) called the Pereheron, so universally used in the 
northern half of France, to draw the diligences and for post- 
horses. 
“ The orign of this race, according to French authorities, 
dates from the occupation of the Netherlands by the Spaniards, 
who introduced the Andalusian horsv, which soon became the 
favorite stud horse all over the. continent. The Spanish horse 
is known to spring from the Barb or Arabian, introduced by 
the Moors, on their conquest of that country. All who are 
conversant with the history of the horse know that the Anda¬ 
lusian has always been celebrated for his beauty, and for his 
great spirit, combined with extraordinary powers of endurance. 
The French horse upon which he was crossed, was the old 
Norman draft horse, which still exists in the country in all its 
purity ; and is, perhaps, the best of all horses for slow draft. 
“The average height of these horses is 16 hands, and they 
may be described as follows : head, short,'wide, and hollow 
between the eyes; jaws, heavy; ears, small and pointed 
well forward; neck, very short and thick; mane, heavy ; shoul¬ 
der, well inclined backwards; back, extremely short; rump, 
steep; quarters, very broad; chest, deep and wide; legs, very 
short, particularly from the knee and hock to the fetlock, and 
thence to the coronet, which is covered with long hair, hiding 
half the hoof; much hair on the legs; tendons, large ; and mus¬ 
cles excessively developed. Notwithstanding the great size 
and weight of the old draft horses, they are active. I have 
seen one of them draw sixteen large bales of cotton in the 
streets of Havre. 
“ If this account of the origin of the Pereheron horse be cor¬ 
rect, it would appear that the crossings with the Spanish horse 
was continued long enough to reduce, very considerably, the 
size of the old Norman horse; and that when the supply of An¬ 
dalusian stud horses was cutoff by the expulsion of the Span¬ 
iards from the low countries, breeding their progeny with one 
another has produced a distinct race, as well marked by cha¬ 
racter and qualities peculiar to itself, as any race of horses 
in Europe. 
“Diligence was chosen as a full sized specimen of the breed, 
possessing all the quick action of the smaller horses, in order 
that his immediate progeny from our light mares might ap¬ 
proach nearer to the true type of the race. It must be observ¬ 
ed, however, that it is more in breadth and size of bone and 
muscle that he exceeds the standard, than in his height, which 
is very little above the average. The portrait, or still better, 
an inspection of the horse, will convince any one that this race 
is the origin of the Canadian pony, about whose valuable pro¬ 
perties.lil tie need be said, as they are well known and highly 
prized in this section of the country, and still more to the north, 
where they have, undoubtedly, given that stamina and charac¬ 
ter to the horses of Vermont, New-I-Iampshire, and the northern 
section of New-York, which makes them so highly valued all 
over the Union as road horses ; while it is a remarkable fact, 
that in those states where the attention of breeders has been 
exclusively devoted to the English race-horse, the carriage and 
the stage-horse is almost universally supplied from the North. 
It remains, therefore, for breeders to determine, whether it is 
not better to resort to the full-sized Pereheron to cross upon 
our light and already too highly bred mares, than to use the 
degenerated Canadian, (degenerate in size only, through the 
rigor of the climate—for it must be admitted that the little ani¬ 
mal retains all the spirit and nerve of his ancestors, and lacks 
strength only in proportion to his size). My own opinion is, 
that a due portion of the French blood mixed with the English, 
will produce a stock of horses invaluable, as combining all the 
properties that are required for quick draft on the road or the 
farm. I need not assure you who are acquainted with the suc¬ 
cess of Diligence as a stud horse in this place, that such, too, 
is the opinion of the farmers of New-Jersey. 
“I have frequently been questioned as to my reasons for se¬ 
lecting this horse for farmers’ use in preference to the English 
draft-horse. My reply has always been, that the draft-horse 
of England, whenever brought to this country, must prove a 
failure; he wants the go-a-head principle ; he cannot move out 
of a walk; which is saying quite.enough of him, without dwell¬ 
ing upon his defects of form, which can only be concealed by 
loads of fat, and not even then, from the eye of the horseman. 
The true Pereheron, or Norman Diligence horse, on the contra¬ 
ry, combines more strength with activity than any horse I have 
ever sat behind. . All travelers, on entering France, are struck 
with the properties of these horses as displayed in drawing the 
ponderous machine called a Diligence, by which they are con¬ 
veyed through the kingdom at a rate fully equal to the average 
of stage,traveling in this country. English horsemen confess 
that their road-horses could not hold out the same pace before 
the same load. But I will close this letter with an extract or 
two from an able article on the Norman horse, in the British 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
“The writer, after giving an account of the origin of the 
horse, which agrees in tracing it to the Spanish horse (of Ara¬ 
bian ancestry) with the account I have given above, which I 
procured from French sources, says : ‘ The horses of Norman¬ 
dy are a capital raee for hard work and scanty fare. Ihave never 
seen such horses at the collar, under the diligence, the post¬ 
carriage, the cumbrous and heavy voiture or cabriolet for one 
or two horses, or the farm-cart. They are enduring and ener¬ 
getic beyond description; with their necks cut to the bone, they 
flinch not ; they put forth all their efforts at the voice of the 
brutal driver, or at the dreaded sound of his never-ceasing 
whip ; they keep their condition when other horses would die of 
neglect and hard treatment. A better cross for some of our 
horses cannot be imagined than those of Normandy, provided 
they have not the ordinary failing, of too much length from the 
hock downwards and a heavy head.’ I think that all who have 
paid attention to this particular breed of Norman horses (the 
Pereheron which stands A No. 1), will bear me out in the asser¬ 
tion that the latter part of this quotation will not apply to 
them, and that on the contrary they are short from the hock 
downwards; that their heads are short, with the true Arabian 
face ; and not thicker than they should be to correspond with 
the stoutness of their bodies. At all events, you can witness 
that Diligence has not these failings, which, when absent, an 
Englishman (evidently, from his article, a good horseman) 
thinks, constitutes the Norman horse “ the best imaginable 
horse for a cross upon English horses, of a certain descrip¬ 
tion. This, coming from such a quarter, I look upon as high 
praise a golden opinion. I would here observe, that I have 
seen great numbers of the cross upon the Norman mare by the 
English thorough-bred, and feel satisfied that they are of su- 
perior form and action for road-horses, and that many of them 
m the hands of our trainers would make fast trotters. Again, 
he says they are ‘ very gentle and docile ; a kicking or vicious 
horse is almost unknown there ; any person may pass in secu¬ 
rity at a fair at the heels of hundreds,’ Edward Harris. ” 
“ Diligence” has made two good seasons in New Jer¬ 
sey, and been well patronized; and his colts are highly 
appreciated; one hundred to one hundred and fifty dol¬ 
lars, has been offered and refused for some of them, from 
good mares, when only one year old. 
Pennsylvania was long celebrated for its large and 
beautiful team horses—the Canistoga breed. We also 
once possessed in this section, a low, heavy, square built, 
strong and tough horse, called the Dutch horse, in con¬ 
sequence of being bred and used by the Dutch inhabi¬ 
tants in this vicinity. They were truly the farmers’ 
horse,—a large animal in a small compass, capable of 
great endurance, and keeping in good condition, with a 
small allowance of grain; powerful enough for the plow 
and sufficiently active for the road. Where are they 
now? Just cast your eyes over the horses before the 
farmers’ wagons, as they arrive in the city, and see what 
a spindle-shanked, long legged, gaunt, unprofitable ani¬ 
mal they now possess. They are too light for the plow 
or the road, and only fit for the saddle and light carria¬ 
ges. They have too much of the racing blood, the mean¬ 
est of all breeds for the work of the farmer. We want 
to increase their weight, without extending their height: 
and I know' of no horse, in my humble opinion, better 
calculated to accomplish the desired object, than Dili¬ 
gence; and I am gratified to have it in my power to say 
that he can be obtained for a season, if suitable encour¬ 
agement be offered, by the farmers in this section. This 
can be determined by those who feel disposed to patro¬ 
nize him, if they will leave their names at the office of 
the Cultivator. C. N. Bement. 
Three Hills Farm, Dec. 1842. 
TO WESTERN EMIGRANTS. 
Readers of the Cultivator— My old Friends—. 
During the last six or eight months you and I have held 
but little intercourse. To be candid, I did not imagine 
that my name would have been so much missed, as I am 
induced to believe it has been by what I am told in a 
great many letters that I have received. It is true, I 
had begun a “ traveling memorandum,” that I intended 
to have continued throughout all my journey, and 
brought you with me in imagination over the great 
northern lakes, and set you quietly down in the chimney 
corner of a comfortable and happy “log cabin home,” 
where we could have looked back over the varied scene, 
and called up to view the many new acquaintances, and 
looked upon their various modes of cultivating the earth, 
and the many different ways of enjoying the fruits there¬ 
of, and then endeavored to find from observation where 
was the greatest amount of human happiness; for there, 
be it East or West, is the place to seek a new home. 
Now I should have accomplished all this, and I am 
well assured should have added a little to your happi¬ 
ness, and thereby to my own; but I undertook to drive 
too much team. The consequence was, the connecting 
chains broke, and although I tried to “ toggle ” the 
broken links, it would not do, and there I have been 
stuck fast ever since. 
Reader, let me here inquire whether you have under¬ 
taken, during the last summer, “to drive too much 
team?” Because, if you have, I am pretty sure there is 
“a link broken” somewhere. This is only another 
mode of repeating to you what I have often said before 
about cultivating too much land. I don’t mean that, ex¬ 
actly, either; because you cannot cultivate too much. 
But do you cultivate it, or only own it? A great many 
of my eastern acquaintances want to emigrate to (he 
West “to get more land.” 
Well, if that is all you want, I pray you come on. 
Here is plenty of land—good land, and cheap; and if to 
be the owner of 2,000 acres of good land will make you 
and your family happy, aye, even happier than they now 
are, why just bring along $2,500 and you can be the 
owner of two thousand acres of good land; beautiful 
land. But what is it worth without cultivation? Why 
just what half of your present farms are worth that are 
as uncultivated as the western prairies. That word 
“your” is wrong; because I am addressing myself to 
the readers of the Cultivator, who have, a great many of 
them, adopted an improved mode of cultivation. But I 
will say the farms of many of the uneasy spirits of the 
eastern states, who want to emigrate to the West merely 
because they want to get more land. Don’t understand, 
by what I say, that I am opposed to emigration. No; 
like all the first settlers of a new country, I want to see 
it fill up; but I want it filled by a class of inhabitants 
that will feel every day, and every member of the fami¬ 
ly, as though they had bettered their condition by re¬ 
moving from the old homestead to a new and unculti¬ 
vated spot. 
How often do I see and hear the reverse of this. How 
often do I feel sorry for the fate of the feeble old grand¬ 
father and mother, who have been induced to quit all the 
comforts of the old homestead to seek for “ more land;” 
to get a “ bigger farm ” in the wilds of the Great West. 
Singular and strange delusion, that bare acres of land 
constitute a farm. Let the old man stay at home; and 
let the young man, with a constitution made to endure 
toil and hard fare, come here and spend a few years of 
industry, actually cultivating the rich soil instead of doing 
as most of us do—“deviling over,” and he will be sure 
to create a home, that to him in his old age will be as 
highly cherished as that of his father was. 
The article under the head of “ Western Farming,” in 
the Oct. number, speaks to the men of capital at the East 
in words of truth, and shows them what may be done at 
farming on the prairies on a large scale. But men who 
