310 



EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



preferred among the excellent farmers of Scotland, particularly 

 in the Lothians. I have seen nothing superior, in my humble 

 judgment, to the last horse, for farm labor, combining good size, 

 with compactness, strength, and action. In Ayrshire, the far 

 mers, being of an opinion that their fine breed of horses was 

 deteriorating, recently imported a stallion from Flanders. This 

 horse was a model of compactness, and strength. He was fifteen 

 and a half hands high his girth, behind his shoulders, was seven 

 feet, four inches, and seventy-five inches round his neck, at the 

 base ; he was twelve years old, and cost sixty guineas, in 

 Flanders. 



The farm-horses, in ploughing, are never worked more than 

 eight hours a day. The ploughman feeds and cleans them at 

 four o clock in the morning. They are harnessed, and the 

 plough started, at six o clock. They are brought to the stable 

 again at two o clock, and fed, and thoroughly groomed, curried, 

 cleaned, bedded, &c., and left for the night, at dark. The feed 

 is almost always cut for them, or if given long, given in small 

 quantities ; and the oats and beans are crushed. On one farm, 

 the allowance for a farm-horse of the largest size was, two 

 bushels of oats, and one peck of beans, and two trusses of hay. 

 (fifty-six pounds each,) per week, in winter; in summer, green 

 feed, vetches, clover, or rye grass, was substituted for the hay. 

 The general allowance is a peck of grain, half oats and half 

 beans, and from fourteen to sixteen pounds of hay, per day. 

 The army allowance for a horse is fourteen pounds of hay, ten 

 pounds of oats, and seven pounds of straw, per day ; &quot; with hard 

 work, less hay. and more corn ; with little work, less corn and 

 more hay.&quot; The horses belonging to the Queen s Guards, 

 which are often to be seen in the streets of London, and always 

 on state occasions, are beautiful animals, and subjects of univer 

 sal admiration. They are of a black color, and bred, I believe, 

 on the continent, purposely for the army. 



The general rule is, to keep, on arable farms, a pair of horses 

 for every forty acres ; in some cases, the proportion of land to 

 the team is larger. One of the best farmers in Scotland allows 

 seven horses for two hundred acres. His land is accessible, and 

 extremely favorable for all farming operations. The cost of 

 keeping a \vorking horse (exclusive of interest or deterioration) he 

 estimates at twenty-five pounds, or more than one hundred and 



