Let us, however, beware of utterly condemning the management of the breeders, and let us not entangle, with an imprudent hand, the threads of his traditions. The horse is his sole fortune, and in the raising of this aid of his agricultural labors, he gains to-day his livelihood. His management has a fixed end to which he always tends with an incredible perseverance, and that is to increase the size of his horses without prejudice to their good qualities. Now that the country is covered with excellent roads and highways; that railways have accustomed us to great speed; that diligences and mail-coaches are forever gone; that the _stylish_ carriage horse, the hunter, and the half-blood, have reached great perfection, the role of the Percheron is completely changed. He is no longer the hunter, the saddle-horse, nor the motive power of heavy wagons over new and broken roads; he remains exclusively both the quick and mettlesome draft-horse, and the heavy burden and express wagon horse. He must possess superior strength, speed, docility, temper, and honesty, and a complete absence of irritability. It is for this reason that after having listened to enthusiastic advisers, and allowed himself to be led astray by men too eager to enjoy the result of their ideas, he to-day is no longer to be cajoled by the solicitations of the amateurs of foreign blood. The Percheron cultivator does not wish even a single drop of it, and exerts himself exclusively in producing heavy horses. Encouraged in this way by the dealers of all countries, paying excessively high prices for the big and heavy Percheron horse, while leaving upon his hands, without the offer of a farthing, the horse in which a few drops of “blood” can be perceived, he has spread his sails and stretched them boldly to catch the breeze of the day. We shall carefully avoid following the example of numerous famous doctors, the display of our little bundle of receipts. Let it be, however, permitted us to touch again slightly upon the question in expressing the fear that, should he not take care, the breeder of heavy horses will in the end render them too heavy and weighty. Stallions having a small touch of blood, well applied, and sufficiently latent not to excite mistrust, having action, good limbs, strong loins, and deep chest, are indispensable for warming up the Percheron blood and giving it tone. Look at _Sandy_, and afterwards at _Collin_, _Bayard_, and some others whose influence was immense. Their progeny, magnificent in every respect, did not show too much blood in their exterior, but revealed it vigorously by action and high spirit. The crosses which have best succeeded with the Percheron are undoubtedly, as shown by numerous examples, those derived themselves from an oriental cross. This fact, which clearly proves that the Percheron race has a great affinity with the race of the desert, should not be neglected in foreign alliances.