We know how the sexes are divided in Perche; one section of the province produces, while another raises what the other has produced. No matter what may be the class to which she belongs, light or heavy, or partaking of both, the mare is expected to breed every year. If barren, she is sold, and this fault continuing, she passes into public use. During her gestation she works constantly. A few days of rest, before and after foaling, is the only time lost. The remainder of the time her work pays abundantly for her keep and the interest on her cost.

At the age of five or six months, the colt is abruptly weaned and sold. Its price varies from five to six hundred francs—sometimes more, but this is the exception—and so far it has cost nothing.

Led into the interior upon the fertile meadows of Mauves, Pin, Regmalard, Corbon, Lougny, Reveillon, Courgeon, Saint-Langis, Villiers, Courgeoust, etc., etc., it remains one year unproductive. In winter it is fed upon hay, in the stable, and during the fine season turned into the fields to graze. To sum up, it is rather poorly nourished on bran, grass, and hay.

The reason is, it is as yet unproductive to its master, and it feels the effects. Wait a little; its hardest time has gone by, and work will soon soften its lot. It reaches, in this manner, the age of 15 or 18 months. What has it cost for keeping? Very little. Estimate, about 80 or 100 francs. At this age it is put to work. Naturally docile and in the hands of a man always patient and mild, its training is generally easy. Assigned to farm labor, it plows or draws a wagon. Harnessed with four or five colts of its own age, together they pull what would be an easy load for two good horses. Put before two oxen, or joined to three of its companions, it plows and is never overworked.

Now, it is better fed, and taken a great deal better care of. Its “morale” improves, and its master seems to delight in contemplating the progress and the development of its qualities. Thus, in traveling through Perche, one involuntarily stops in the midst of the fields to see it work, never tired of admiring the vigor it displays, and the gentleness with which it is treated.

The bait is there. At the age of three the Beauce farmer buys it to work his soft and light soil. For him, it must be preserved intact, its development uninjured, nay encouraged.

Master, servants, large and small, all deeply imbued with the love of the horse, unite in this work with admirable skill.

It has thus worked during one year, abundantly fed, but receiving little or no grain. Doing enough light work to pay for its keep, the master has received, besides its manure, a heavy interest on the cost, as we will presently see.

This premature work, which would have been injurious under a careless management, is, on the contrary, beneficial when it is in the hands of a good master. This is so much the general case, that the contrary is the exception. The animal grows and becomes better developed in size and strength.

Now, as we before observed, the Beauce farmer comes to buy. He lives in a country of proverbial richness. The work there is abundant, but the nature of the soil renders it extremely easy. The fields, very much divided, and distant one from another, make a rapid gait indispensable.

In Beauce, the horse cannot be replaced as a beast of burden; no matter how dear his keeping, his use is indispensable; the ox cannot be his competitor. But it is a fact of the greatest importance to state, that it is to the ox that the Percheron horse owes a part of his celebrity.

As is well known, Beauce is the exceptional country for cereals; the horse and sheep are pretty much the only animals which there produce a manure required by such husbandry. Add to this the breadth of land under tillage, and the extreme fertility of the soil, and the large number of horses kept by the Beauce farmer will be accounted for.

At three years old, the Percheron dealer sells his horse for 900 or 1,000 francs, and sometimes more, according to his merit. But he does this only in order to buy other colts; and the profit has been, in fact, sufficiently large to warrant him in this. He has had against him only the chances of mortality. These are small; the race is tough and hardy. Accidents are more to be dreaded, and these sometimes occur. Living in the open air, in the company of other animals, the young colt is a little exposed to the influences of chance. But the fields are enclosed, the master’s eye is upon it, and, to sum up all, the large profit covers every thing.

Reaching Beauce at three years old, he is subjected to hard work. The work is easy enough, but there is much of it. He must be quick, the breadth of land is very extensive, and the work must be done. Sowing and harvesting—these two words sum up the Beauceron agriculture. Otherwise expressed—plowing and hauling. As regards the horse, all must be done promptly and quickly.

But if he be hard worked, on the other hand, nothing is denied him. He eats as much grain and hay as he pleases. What difference does this make to the farmer? Do not his labor and his manure pay for his nourishment? And, moreover, how act otherwise? As we have seen, nothing can supply his place. Necessity has no law.

He lives in this way a year, with abundant food. Sometimes he succumbs; the mortality is quite large in this region. But the stock which remains after such a training offers many guaranties to the dealer who buys it to transfer, if they suit, to the express and omnibus companies; or if they belong to the draft race, to the contractors, wagoners, and builders, of Paris. At five, he is bought by the horse-dealer at the annual horse fair on St. Andrew’s Day in the town of Chartres. There he is delivered, the farmer leading his horse upon the ground. The prices vary from 1,000 to 1,400 francs. The profit is small, sometimes nothing, the greatest gain being his work, which cannot be dispensed with. The feeble have perished; the survivors owe their lives only to their robust constitutions.

Before dedication to his final use, he has thus passed through four hands; all these have shared the risks of his rearing. The most serious have been for the last owner; but he was also the wealthiest, and to him also has he been the most useful.

Thus, we see, the foal costs almost nothing, and his work pays for his keep. Perfectly well fed, and exercised from his tenderest age, the Percheron has always been the first draft-horse in the world, and he would have constantly improved, if his admirable qualities themselves had not led to his degeneration.