40 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



folk I think, lost several valuable horses last year 

 through this culpable nonsense. 



The rival teams of the great London brewers, 

 which are, in a degree, probably an advertisement, 

 are a very different consideration. Let the plough- 

 man, however, be content to have his horses plump 

 and spirited. To my mind, even the decking with 

 ribbons, and plaiting of the mane and tail, is as 

 absurd a waste of time as it is vulgar in effect upon 

 a noble pair of bays or blacks. During the summer, 

 certainly, I lean very much to the plan of letting 

 them out in fold-yards, well sheltered, and with a 

 long shed open to the south. 



A comfortable sight is it to see in summer time 

 the teams, their sheeny coats glancing in the sun, 

 busy at their cratches laden with fresh vetches, a 

 porker or two underneath crunching away at the juicy 

 stems that fall through, as young niggers at a sugar- 

 cane; or meditatively slaking their thirst in the fresh 

 liquid that comes pouring into the slate cistern 

 by a pipe from the hill above. While the hot 

 months last, an abundance of green food — lucerne, 

 vetches, clover, trifolium — will keep the teams in 

 trim. In winter, beginning about October (by no 

 means let them go back from their summer flesh 

 before you begin), for a big horse, one hundred- 

 weight of good hay cut with fresh wheat straw, two 

 bushels of oats, and a few roots per week, will do 

 amply. If you add half a bushel of bran, or a 

 handful of beans, they will have reason to regard 

 you as a generous-hearted proprietor, and will not 

 fail to repay you accordingly. 



