This variety (the draft-horse) demands a great deal less care in the choice of the dams and sires. It is infinitely more elementary, since weight is principally sought after. Still, it is well, even indispensable, to select individuals short coupled and with good quarters, to hold out under the enormous loads they are obliged to draw. The means resorted to to accomplish this are judicious crosses, constantly made with a well-determined and always identical idea, tending to increase weight and strength, while preserving spirit and vigor, abundant nourishment, and breeding in those sections naturally most propitious to style and size. Soon, Perche, placed in a situation without a rival for the present, and, above all, for the future, might forever avoid asking any thing of foreign crossings. For though the choice of the stallion and the mare is so important in the _production_ of the foal, the climate, the kind of food, the agricultural habits, and, finally, the adaptation of the region to horse breeding, are of a great deal more importance in the _development_ of the animal. It becomes, then, somewhat difficult to indicate accurately to what types, in such particular cases, the preference should be awarded. The best are those which most nearly meet the wants of the section. [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER VI. IMPROVEMENT OF THE BREED BY MEANS OF FOREIGN CROSSINGS. However, if with strength acquired and faults corrected, style is not attained, it may be sought after by judicious crosses with well-chosen foreign types. Two different breeds present themselves to us as means of improving our stock by the introduction of foreign blood: the Arabian, and the English, with its variations. Starting from this point, let us study both and endeavor to discover, by analogy, which one would best suit, or, rather, which one is the least unfavorable to the purpose. I will examine, one after another, these two methods in detail, leaving to the cultivator, who is most interested in the question, the choice of employing that which seems to him the best and the most appropriate, taking into view the fertility and the nature of his section. But I must, from the beginning, lay down as a principle that both are more expensive than is interbreeding. A race to become fit to receive a foreign cross, should be prepared for it in advance, in order to shorten, as much as possible, the distance existing between the breed so formed and proved and that which we seek to create. In fact, the foreign cross can do no good, unless the desired qualities in the race upon which it is made are permanent, fixed, and characteristic.