440 On tJie Cost of Horse-poicer'. 



Report of Norfolk — in the first volume of the Journal of tlie 

 Bath and West of England Agricultural Society — and in the 

 pages of the agricultural papers during the past few years. For 

 the student of this subject I may refer, in addition to all this, to 

 the formal treatises on the Horse and on Stable Management by 

 Stewart, Youatt, and several anonymous writers, whose pages, 

 however, I have not consulted, 



4. Lastly, about two dozen reports of their own practice and 

 experience kindly sent to me by gentlemen farming in Kent, 

 Sussex, Dorsetshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, 

 Essex, Bedfoi'dshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Northum- 

 berland, the Lothians, Invernessshire, antl near Dublin and 

 VVaterford. 



In order to use this great mass of evidence in as compendious 

 and clear a manner as possible for the illustration of the sub- 

 ject, it is proposed in the first place to give a list (Table L) 

 of all the various plans of feeding followed, giving the authority 

 for each — stating the quantities consumed and the calculated 

 cost per week — and classifying them according to the season of 

 their use. In a second table (II.) a selection of these plans is 

 made so as to embrace the whole twelve months In each of the 

 instances selected, and thus bring out the cost per horse per 

 annum. The annual cost of horse-food In a number of authen- 

 ticated cases will thus appear. In a third table (III.) I give in as 

 condensed a form as possible the further history of those cases 

 which have been sufficiently described in the reports which have 

 been given to me. To the cost of food there is here added the 

 estimated or the stated amount of blacksmiths', saddlers', and 

 farriers' bills, and of keeping up the value of the animal and the 

 implements he uses : here also is given the number of horses 

 worked, and from this the total annual cost of the horse-power of 

 the farm is calculated : to this Is added the wages annually paid 

 the ploughman, deducting, when I was so instructed, such por- 

 tion as is due for work at harvest and other times unconnected 

 with the horses. With the whole annual cost of horse labour at 

 which we thus arrive, the reader of this table may compare the 

 acreage of the several crops whose annual cultivation is accom- 

 plished in the several cases specified ; and notes are given in the 

 several instances to characterize the kind of soil prevalent on the 

 different farms. The remainder of the paper is occupied with 

 extracts from the reports with which I have been favoured, and 

 with an attempt to deduce, from a few of the histories given in 

 the tables, the cost of horse-power " per cwt. of draught at a given 

 rate of movement." 



The first table, it will be seen, gives in successive columns the 

 number of each case, the authority on which it is given, the 



