192 Progress of Jgrkultural Knowledije 



ample for each plough. But it may be said that ploughing is not 

 the only employment of farm-horses, and that if the same number 

 of horses be required as at present for other farming operations, 

 each in their due season, the farmer cannot reduce his horses, since 

 for these operations he will require his present establishment ; that 

 his stables must be as full as they are now ; and consequently the 

 only advantage of putting two horses instead of three to his plough 

 will be that one-third of his cattle may remain idle at home during 

 the season of ploughing. Now it happens, singularly, that an- 

 other saving of horse-labour has been proposed, which would pre- 

 cisely meet this emergency. In southern England the harvest is 

 brought home on heavy waggons drawn by three horses; and the 

 dung is carried out on equally heavy carts, to which three horses 

 are also attached : but in Cumberland and the north all this is done 

 wdtli light carts drawn by one horse only. Here we have prac- 

 tice on each side, and certainly there appears no particular reason 

 why three horses drawing three carts should be able to convey 

 more than three horses drawing one large cart only : but the con- 

 trary would seem more likely. Still there is a strong opinion on 

 the part of those fanners who use the one-horse cart that their 

 system is best. This is a difficult matter to test ; but we have 

 had a paper from a south country agriculturist, Mr. Hannam, 

 Mdio has used one-horse carts for ten years, at Burcott, near 

 Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, and who thus states his own ex- 

 perience : — • 



*' My farm, of 370 acres, was some years ago under very able ma- 

 nagement, with a strength of twelve horses and six oxen. Just previous 

 to my taking it into my own occupation sixteen horses had been em- 

 ployed by another spirited cultivator. I have gradually, by the joint 

 operation of two-horse ploughs and single-horse carts, reduced my num- 

 ber to eight horses .... Let farmers take the two-horse plough as a first, 

 and the single-horse cart as a second step, and I have no hesitation in 

 asserting that they will find themselves gradually, as they are able to 

 master the working of the system, able to perform their labour, as I have 

 experienced, with something approaching to half the number of horses 

 that they now use, and with at least equal facility and comfort." 



This is a strong statement from ten years' experience, supported 

 by calculations for which I must refer to Mr. Hannam's own 

 paper,* and founded on the practice of the north of England — that 

 one half of the purchase -money of horses, their wear and tear, their 

 food, the bills for shoeing them, forming together a large part of 

 the outgoings upon a farm, may be saved by the use of two-horse 

 ploughs and one-horse carts. Now I would not advise a farmer 

 even on these grounds to part with his waggons, because further 



* Journal, vol. ii. p. 73. On the Reduction of Horse Labour by Single- 

 Horse Carts. By H. Hannum. 



