But everything is much changed. The country has no longer any special type in the midst of all this gray amalgamated with Brittany, Picardy, and Caux, of which the equine stock of Perche is now composed. If the Percheron should cease to be bound by this law of gray, if he should become of all shades, at the same time remaining good, and such as Perche knows how to make him, he would cease to be dishonored by those everlasting plagiarists, shamelessly calling themselves Percherons because they happen to be gray and have travelled across the Perche country. If he should become of all shades, in preserving the qualities and movement which are a feature of everything that the tonic grasses and the fine and vivifying air of Perche produces, he would not be reduced to the simple role of furnishing the 6,000 or 7,000 horses that the omnibuses and teamsters each year require, plus the 600 or 700 typical ones that foreign countries demand of Perche. He might, little by little, contribute to the satisfaction of the half-fancy and to the wants of the hunting and army equipages; he might advantageously replace the German horse, which we are obliged to employ in want of a better. Post-coaches no longer existing, there is no longer need of gray horses for the night in the midst of the darkness of the highways. Steam machinery, the indispensable substitute for the lack of human hands in the country, being destined to execute, in part, the labors of agriculture, the horse will be less employed there, and the one that will be called for, having fewer difficulties to overcome, can be lighter, more _distingué_, faster, and more fit for adaptation to the exigences of trade and fashion.—Finally, Fashion wishing, positively, no more gray horses, and the Percheron finding no longer a sufficient employment in the omnibuses, will soon find himself in a tight place if he do not take a fresh start, and make himself acceptable—if he do not conform to the exactions of the age, and become more stylish and darker colored. It is settled, then, that he must put upon his back a less showy covering; but he can only do this on condition that he become, thanks to good crossings, more presentable and have a more stylish air. And, really, what is more ridiculous than a vulgar and common beast decked out with the livery of the fancy and private horse! Let us occupy ourselves, then, seriously in looking up breeding stock of dark coats; the time to do this appears to me to have come. But where will we go to find them? Let us look about us and seek for this in Perche.