Parallel to the mode of improvement which I have already shown,
(Chapter 1st, Part Second), and which has as its agents the members
of the Council-boards and the district members of each canton, there
might be formed, as a means of embracing all, a great annual Department
Fair, to be held alternately in the best towns of Perche at the time
of the fairs which attract the most people; in Orne, at Mortagne and
Alençon; at Chartres, Nogent-le-Rotrou, and Chateaudun, for Eure and
Loir; at Vendôme and Montdoubleau for the department of Loir and Cher.
The departments of the Cote-d’Or, Nievre, and Youne, which possess the
best Percheron stallions, might likewise enter into the association of
the Percheron Stud-book, for which they have all the elements.
This book would give increased value to the breed, as is easily
understood, for it is the surest of all the means of improvement and
perpetuation of valuable qualities. It would drive off, forever, the
defective stallions, and those corrupted with hereditary blemishes, as
well as those coming from tainted families, which, I feel sure, would
be refused a record in its pages. The prices of colts would likewise
gain by this measure, the effect being a powerful impulse given to
breeding. But it would be necessary to be very careful about ever
admitting any foreign blood, in order that the recorded herds might
accumulate more and more an ancestral force.
The Stud-book would offer still another advantage, that of permitting
us to find again the good types, should Perche some day, in consequence
of bad crossings, or from want of judgment, deviate from the true way.
In fact, desire of gaining too much and of enjoying too fast at present
tempts every body into innovations. Our age, so eager to enjoy, and
so quick in all enterprises, has no longer the patience to wait for
the improvements that time and study can alone confirm and solidly
establish. It wants things off-hand, and for this it is often satisfied
with adulterated products; hence, these injudicious crossings; hence,
this mania for mixing together without discernment—a mania which
threatens to destroy our valuable national breeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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