Identifier: corncattleproduc00rich (find matches)
Title: The corn and cattle producing districts of France
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Richardson, George Gibson, 1816-1879
Subjects: Agriculture
Publisher: London New York : Cassell
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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often much divided; allthe country is under plough; sowing and harvestingmust be done, and done quickly; oxen would be use-less in such a country. Here the Percheron horse isdriven at his utmost powers of speed, and has to drawthe utmost weights of which he is capable. He notunfrequently breaks down under the trial, but thosewhich do not succumb, after doing the farm-work forabout a year or so, are sold at the great fairs, chieflythose of Chartres, to buyers who require them foromnibus or heavy team work at Paris or elsewhere.The price now will have reached from £40 to £60, nota great advance upon the cost to the Beauce farmer; buthe has done the work that was indispensable, and hehas passed through, three or four hands, each onegetting some profit or benefit from his use. The Prench are very proud of the Percheron breedof horses, and consider the true race as very ancient,and as pure as the best breeds of England or Arabia.The characteristics of the best horses are, that tliev run
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NORMANDY, 181 from fifteen to sixteen hands in heisflit; the head is Percheron ^ Horses. handsome, thongh perhaps sometimes heavy, but morefrequently as fine as an Arabs; the nostrils wide; theeye large and expressive; the forehead broad; earssilky; neck rather short, but with a good crest; withershigh; shoulders long and sloping; chest rather fiat, butbroad and deep; body well ribbed; loins rather long;crupper level and muscular; the buttocks often high,leaving a depression above the junction of the tail,which is set on high; joints short and strong; thetendon often weak; legs clean and free from coarsehair; feet always good, though rather flat when rearedupon moist pastures ; the skin fine ; and mane silky andabundant; the colour is generally grey, but there aresome grand black Percherons. At the fair at Chartres,February, 1877, one dealer had eighteen blacks, forwhich he asked £2,000, and they were well worth thatmoney. Docile, patient, honest workers, very hardy,the Percherons ar

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