THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



331 



for the very able paper which he had reatl, and 

 whetlier they at^reed with it or not was not tlie 

 question, as the object was to ehcit information 

 upon that in which they were all deeply interested. 

 The economy of horse labour was a matter which 

 seriously affected them, inasmuch as it formed a 

 larjre item of the expenditure on every farm. 

 Whether it was jfossible to economise or not in 

 that department he was not prepared to say, but, 

 at all events, it was a question deserving of all 

 the attention and consideration which they could 

 give to it. Mr. Coggins had introduced into his 

 paper a great number of statistics, and, although 

 he did not mean to undervalue them, yet he could 

 not refrain from saying that statistical documents 

 were easily raised and were not always to be relied 

 on. In proof of this he would mention that, a 

 short time ago a friend, who was about to take a 

 farm, asked him what it would take to stock it. 

 His (Mr. Williams's) reply was £10 per acre, but 

 his friend said he had put down everything, and 

 could not make it come to anything like that, but 

 he (Mr. Wilhams) assured him that, in spite of all 

 his theories and statistics, he would find in the end 

 that it would exceed £10, for so many things arose 

 which it was impossible to foresee to calculate for. 

 In his paper Mr. Coggins had not looked into the 

 details of various items on a farm beyond ploughing, 

 and some few other operations which he had given 

 them, but they all knew from experience that there 

 were many others to be looked to ; that they often 

 wanted at one time of the year a larger number of 

 horses than at another time ; and that one day's 

 ploughing done at the right time was of more value 

 than three times the amount of labour at another, 

 and therefore they were obliged to keep surplus 

 horses, to enable them to do the work at the fitting 

 moment, for to keep only a certain number of 

 horses to do particular work at stated times would 

 not answer. Farming differed very much, and 

 although every farm was a manufactory, yet 

 one man employed a certain amount of ma- 

 chinery, manual, and horse labour, while another 

 on a farm of the same extent doubled it in every 

 department. The more he increased his live stock 

 the greater was his profit ; but if he increased his 

 live stock it was necessary to increase his horse 

 labour, for there were mangolds to be brought 

 home, to be cut up and carted to the sheds, all re- 

 quiring the employment of more horse labour. It 

 might be possible, as Mr. Coggins had stated, to 

 do with only two horses for every 100 acres, but 

 he (Mr, Williams) was satisfied that it could not 

 be done profitably. Mr. Coggins might have done 

 it, and there was no doul*t that he did it in the 

 best way. The more a man studied the more he 

 found he had to learn, and the province of Farmers' 

 Clubs was to raise discussions, with a view of 

 eliciting information and truth, so that they might 

 be able to learn something from the results of 

 each man's experience. This was a great practi- 

 cal question, and their balance sheet was every 

 year affected by it ; there were, however, many 

 points which had a great deal to do with it, such 

 for instance as the nature of the soil, for on light 

 land two horses would do the work of four employed 

 on heavy land, which required double the number 



of horses. He (Mr. Williams) had some land 

 where two horses would |>lough an acre a day, and 

 other land where four horses could not do the 

 same amount of work. He differed from Mr. 

 Coggins, who, he thought, had put the standard 

 too low, for he thought that, instead of two horses 

 to every 100 acres, three at least ought to be kept, 

 and that four could be profitably employed, and he 

 should move an amendment to that effect. 



Mr. Watson, of Medley, being called on, said 

 he had had some experience, for he once occupied 

 400 acres of land, with a quantity of grass land. 

 At that time he adopted the principle of having 

 horses in pairs to plough, and from his experience 

 at that time he believed that eight horses on that 

 farm would perform a certain amount of work, but 

 were not able to do all that was required of them, 

 because there were so many other things to be per- 

 formed besides the cultivating the soil and carting 

 corn. On 400 acres two extra horses were re- 

 quired in the improved state of husbandry, and as 

 people imjjroved their farms they must increase the 

 amount of labour, and if they produced double the 

 quantity of produce and kept an increased number 

 of sheep, additional labour was required for cutting 

 mangolds, swedes, and chaflf, which during the 

 winter season alone could employ two horses. 

 They must also provide for cases when their horses 

 were not fit to go to work, and have some in reserve, 

 and therefore he concurred with Mr. Williams that 

 three horses were necessary to every 100 acres. 

 He did not mean to say that it was impossible to 

 do with less, for on light farms it might be done, 

 whereas on heavy land it would require double the 

 number of horses, but, taking the average, they 

 required at least three. As to the keep of horses, 

 which Mr. Coggins had put down at Ss. l^d. per 

 head per week, he (Mr. Watson) had had no ex- 

 perience of feeding them on mangolds and swedes, 

 for he did not approve of it. He also thought that 

 if Mr. Coggins had dispensed with the mangolds, 

 and given his horses instead a truss of hay each 

 per week, he would have found that the horses 

 were better able to do their work. A great deal, 

 however, depended on having good carters, for 

 some men took more out of a horse than others, 

 and injured a horse more with ten miles than 

 others would do in double the distance. In certain 

 seasons of the year farmers did not work their 

 horses so hard as at others, but he thought that 

 they ought to be in such a condition as to be able 

 to do eight days' work in the week if required. 

 At times they might go on the land and yet not 

 have the same effect on the land, but they pulled 

 their horses about, trod the land, and the work was 

 in a great measure thrown away. At other times, 

 when the land was in good condition, and their 

 horses too, they could press them and take advan- 

 tage of all circumstances, and do double the 

 amount of work. He thought that if it cost 1 s. or 

 Is. 6d. per week more to keep their horses, or kept 

 them on hay at 2s. per week more, it would be an 

 advantage to the farmer, and the horses would be 

 in better condition. He knew that they could 

 keep them in condition with a certain amount of 

 chaff and hay, and fit them to perform the labour 

 required, but he could come to no other conclusion 



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