The success of the Percheron race was very great. All the departments wished to acclimate it. The prices of these stallions had increased so rapidly in a few years, that they had tripled and quadrupled. Accordingly, the possessors sold them. The administrative authorities, aided by the élite of the proprietors, endeavored, however, to hinder this emigration. They formed a stud-stable at Bonneval; but this establishment was not composed of types that were homogeneous and adapted to assure a regular and continuous improvement. Prizes were given at Mortagne, Nogent-le-Rotrou, Illiers, and Vendôme. But an end was arrived at contrary to what was desired. The prizes served as signs to the dealers. Perche was visited to buy first-class horses. What surer guaranty than the prize? And then, how could the breeders resist the prices of 3,000 and 4,000 francs, and even more, offered the proprietor of a stallion? It will be objected that these stallions, before disappearing, had already served; I know this. But how served? They had served at two or three years, before their complete development, and it was at the age at which they would have been most useful, that they were withdrawn from their district, and the same thing was true with the best mares. Several departments carried off great numbers; they were sent everywhere. A great many proprietors bought them. Thus disappeared, gradually, the flower of the breeding-mares. The race was cut off in its prime. Perche stretched its sails to the winds of the present without thinking of the future! Stallions of all kinds now came forward; stallions from Brittany, Picardy, Caux, and Boulogne. The heaviest were preferred. The change was so rapid, that, to-day, in many places, there does not remain the slightest trace of genuine Percheron blood. It is a mixture which betrays itself to the eye by coarse forms, foreign to the original type, and in the _morale_ by a sensible loss of that generous spirit, and of that indescribable something that we so much admired. Perche would formerly have disowned stock lacking the eastern character; still, their presence is not without instruction. It gives the measure of the great climatic qualities of this province, and proves what it could have done with well-chosen animals. Such is its force of assimilation, that after nourishing some generations upon its soil, it is able to reform them, and impart that sacred fire, and that build, which can only come from the nourishment of its hills. The department authorities, unwearied by the slight success of their first attempts, renew their efforts, from year to year, to oppose the progress of this degeneration, and endeavor to combat it by the strongest measures.