I cannot terminate this chapter without warning the breeder against a peculiarity which hardly ever fails to strike a person, who, for the first time, makes a trial of the Arab cross, and which has even induced some to abandon this method without reaping its fruits. I desire to speak of a certain disproportion, more apparent than real, of the limbs with the body. It is thus explained: The Arabian, born and raised in a poor and barren country, is no sooner transported to a more fertile region, than a certain fullness of the body is an immediate consequence of this change. His progeny, easily fattened, rapidly become corpulent. It results from this, that although strongly limbed, they appear, for a large body, to have but weak extremities. But have patience; oats will draw in and strengthen those inflated flanks, and, after the second generation, the stomach of the colt will enlarge on account of the food being more abundant than concentrated, the fat will disappear, and his compact and solid limbs will appear what they really are. [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER VIII. THE ENGLISH CROSS. English blood, infused with judgment, allies well with the Percheron race, and we have met with perfectly successful results in the midst of the disappointments which have been the consequences of injudicious crossing. Too often these crossings have been effected in violation of common sense, without any attention to the distance which separates the blood horse from the common, low-bred Percheron mare, she having no affinity with him. But these trials require science, wealth, and perseverance, and are far from being within the reach of ordinary breeders. Those who would succeed must possess the talent of waiting, for unfortunately the rearing of the resulting progeny is a burden. Their slow development renders them but little fit for the labors to which the farmer is in the habit of consigning his colts. Then, they cannot, like the young Percheron, pass from hand to hand, and thus they find themselves stripped of the only advantage which renders the raising of the draft colts so profitable: avoiding embarrassment and affording a prompt profit to all through whose hands they pass. In fact, it can easily be conceived how favorably, at present, are these chances of profit distributed among several hands. The capital invested is soon returned; and thus this operation is within the reach of all purses. [Illustration: PRINCE IMPERIAL.—FRENCH NORMAN.] The issue of English blood, if judiciously managed, will some day be finer than the unimproved Percheron. But, although carefully looked after and abundantly fed, he will remain puny during his early growth, and therefore his account can only be closed at a distant date. By whom, then, is he to be raised? By the farmer rich in ready money? In every country such men are rare. By the large landed proprietor? But he is not a breeder, or if he be, it is only of race-horses.