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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



HORSE LABOUR. — OXFORD FARMERS' CLUB, 



The montlily meeting of the Oxford Farmers' 

 Club was held on Wednesday, February 8, when 

 there was a large attendance of members. 



Mr. G. F. CoGGiNS, of Coombe Farm, read the 

 following paper on "The most economical applica- 

 tion of Horse Labour." He said : — " The subject 

 I have proposed to introduce for your discussion 

 to-day is the most economical application of horse 

 power. lam wellawarethatthissubjectmaybelooked 

 upon by many (having been so ably and recently 

 touched upon by Mr. Morton in his paper on 

 the forces, &c., read before the Society of Arts) as 

 not to cause any general interest for discussion, 

 still, as I had given notice of this subject some 

 months previously, I am sure you will acquit me 

 of anything like presumption in following so able 

 an authority as Mr. Morton. Of the importance 

 of this subject to the agriculturist generally there 

 can be no doubt when we consider the place the 

 cost of horse labour takes in the farmer's balance 

 sheet. I shall now, gentlemen, take a cursory 

 glance at the theoretical opinion of a horse's power. 

 Most gentlemen here present are aware that the 

 celebrated Watt, the father of the steam engine, 

 estimated the power of the horse to be equal to 

 that which will raise 33,000lbs. 1 foot per minute, 

 or 3,300 lbs. 10 feet high per minute, and so on in 

 like proportion. Now there is no doubt whatever 

 that Watt estimated the actual force of a horse 

 fully one-third more than it really is, and subse- 

 quent experimenters have given 22,000lbs. raised 1 

 foot high per minute as nearer the actual work per- 

 formed. It is possible that a good horse could do 

 tlie work equivalent to raising 33,000lbs. 1 foot high 

 per minute, yet only for a short duration of time; but 

 the question is, how long can he maintain this 

 amount of work. These deductions of a horse's 

 power, ascertained by men eminent as engineers, 

 are not without their value to the practical farmer, 

 and, in fact, without making ourselves somewhat 

 acquainted with these established formulae, the 

 dynamometer tests, so accurately applied at the 

 trials of the Royal Agricultural Society's meetings, 

 seem to us of small value. It is one of the esta- 

 blished and first principles of the mechanics that 

 as "speed is gained, force or poweris lost," i.e. the 

 force an animal exerts to propel a load or machine 

 decreases with the increase of speed. Mr. Tredgold 

 an eminent engineer and a very high authority on 

 these matters, has given the following table show- 

 ing the relation of speed and traction of a horse, 

 calculated upon the assumption that six hours be 

 a day's work. At 2 miles per hour, l661bs. offeree 

 are given out ; 



From this table it appears that a horse performs 



the greatest amount of actual work when travelling 

 at the rate of three miles per hour, and six hours 

 per day at the time of working. I believe that it 

 is almost asuniversally alaw, as any of nature's fixed 

 or known laws, " that the best article is the 

 cheapest;" and I do not think this applies more 

 forcibly in any instance, than that of purchasing 

 the noble machine — the horse. The force of a 

 horse does not lie in itself, but is contained in the 

 food which is daily required to maintain that power; 

 and as we cannot keep up the power in steam en- 

 gines without the fuel in which the power lies, 

 neither can we obtain the eflfective power of a 

 horse, unless he be well fed. To buy an old 

 horse, or animal, with an organic disease, or a want 

 of good formation, is like buying an engine with a 

 worn piston and leaky tubes ; and when the ne- 

 cessarily expensive food the horse requires is taken 

 into consideration, the first cost is certainly not an 

 object. Another point, and of very material im- 

 portance, is the size of a horse. We often hear it 

 said with a nice, neat, clean-legged horse before us 

 (more fit for a light van horse, than anything else) 

 — " What a good gee horse that would make!" But 

 as far as I have seen, I believe that the greater part 

 of farm horses are below in stature what is required 

 for the economical assimilation of their costly food. 

 The power of a draught horse very materially de- 

 pends upon his weight ; and although we do some- 

 times see a smaller horse with what we call a good 

 pluck (which generally denotes a strong constitu- 

 tion), capable of performing an amount of work 

 which certainly an ill-formed horse, with but little 

 animal spirit, though of larger size, is not capable 

 of doing, the most economical horse, I believe, to 

 be purchased is from 15^ hands to 16| hands high, 

 with a carcase in proportion to his height. In 

 viewing an animal as the most perfectly constrxicted 

 of all machines, wonderfully adapting itself to the 

 varied circumstances in which it may be placed, it 

 still has a limited period for its duration of labour, 

 and this is a point that very materially affects the 

 subject under discussion. It has already been 

 shown from Tredgold's tables to depend in a great 

 measure upon the quantity of force extorted, and 

 that a horse working six hours per day can per- 

 form, the greatest amount of work. But of the 

 manifold operations of farming, some do not re- 

 quire an amount of force that should complete a 

 day's v/ork in six hours for a well-fed horse, and 

 from various circumstances it is necessary, as a 

 whole, that the hours of work shall be prolonged, 

 and the amount of force reduced. Among agricul- 

 turists generally we find a great diversity of opinion 

 upon this point, and a day's work consequently 

 varies from 7 to 10 hours. I have no doubt but 

 that peculiarity of circumstances, which almost 

 every farm possesses, in a great measure accounts 

 for this. But still, I think, that prejudice, which 

 affects more or less each of us, gives rise to this 

 wide difference of time which practical men advo- 



