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137 



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tensive farms, there horses are chiefly used, this food being 

 suited to their constitution. Not to enter further into the 

 comparative advantage of oxen and horses, we shall turn 

 our attention to the most profitable management of the 

 latter, which now almost universally compose the farmer's 

 team. 



The choice of the horses for a farm is of great import- 

 ance. It may be very satisfactory to a rich farmer to see 

 fine large well-fed horses in his waggon, moving along as 

 il they followed a procession, with bright harness orna- 

 mented with shining brass. This is a luxury like that of 

 the ric-h man's coach-horses, and as such is very natural 

 and innocent. It is the pride of many a wealthy yeoman, 

 and we would not curtail his pleasure or despise his taste ; 

 but as a matter of profit or loss the case is very different : 

 a fat horse does little work, no more than a fat coachman. 

 Horses to be in working condition should be muscular and 

 active. The great heavy cart-horse may, for a moment, 

 be capable of a greater exertion at a dead pull, his weight 

 assisting him ; but in a long day the thin active horse will 

 do with ease what would sicken, if not, kill, his heavy 

 companion. Horses about fifteen hands high, with short 

 legs and broad chests, such as the Suffolk punches, which 

 walk as fast as an ordinary man, or the active Scotch 

 horses, which have more blood and will readily trot 

 with a moderate load, are the most economical for farm- 

 work. A pair of such horses will draw a load in a cart 

 sixteen miles and return, or plough a Scotch acre of 

 Iftnd, equal to one acre and a quarter imperial measure, in 

 ten working hours, having a rest of two hours ; while the 

 heavy slow South-country horses could not walk the dis- 

 tance in the time without being over-driven. This is more 

 than the average work ; but in the busy time of the year 

 it is a great advantage to have horses which can, with good 

 feeding, work longer and faster without suffering in their 

 health. The carriers on the roads, who live entirely by 

 the work of their horses, know how to choose them and 

 how to feed them to the greatest advantage, and, without 

 over-working them, to make them do as much as is con- 

 si-tent with their health. If hard work is the cause of 

 some diseases in horses, comparative indolence t 

 many more. Where horses are sluggish, the men soon 

 become so likewise. To see a waggon with four strong 

 horses returning empty, at the rate of two miles in the 

 hour, with two men, or at least a man and a boy, lying 

 lazily in it, is a sun- siirn that the work on the farm to 

 which they belong is done at the same rate. A single- 

 horse cart, or a liirht spring wasreron with two horses, driven 

 by a man or hoy with reins and a whip, and trotting at the 

 rate of five miles an hour, is a perfect contrast to this, and 

 no doubt the owner has his work done much more expedi- 

 tiously, and consequently at a cheaper rate. The stage- 

 coach proprietors have generally very light four-wheeled 

 carriages to carry their corn from their chief stations to 

 places where they keep horses, and they often carry as heavy 

 loads as a farmer's waggon does when carrying corn to 

 market ; yet the two horses in the light carriage trot with 

 their load, and the three or four heavy horses of the farmer 

 move at the rate of two miles and a half in the hour at 

 most, both going and returning. It is evident that there 

 is a waste of time and power here, which is so much lost. 

 Horses half-bred between a cart-mare and a blood-horse 

 are reared by some spirited farmers, and if they are more 

 delicate and susceptible of cold than the common cart- 

 horses, they have many advantages: sometimes they in- 

 herit so much courage and vigour from theirsire, that they 

 become valuable as carriage-horses or hunters, and well 

 repay the expense incurred in rearing them ; and at all 

 U they are superior to any others for the work of the 

 farm, and are in general docile and tractable. The only 

 inconvenience arises from their spirit. When any sudden 

 obstruction arises in ploughing, such as a considerable root 

 of a tree or a lar<;e stone, they make violent exertions, and 

 sometimes bleak the ploughs or other implements. In 

 this respect oxen are more phlegmatic, and stop when the 

 collar presses on them ; so that in breaking up rough com- 

 or newly cleared woods oxen may be preferred. 

 This is almost, the only case where spirit and courage are 

 not an advantage. 



\Vith respect to the food of farm-horses, as we observed 



bi-l'oi. - nuiy !)< effected by a judicious use 



of many vegetables and roots which are easily raised on 



arable land. Various modes of preparing the food have 



P. C., No. 1505. 



been recommended, such as steeping corn till it sprouts, 

 baking it into bread, or mixing it with boiled roots. All 

 these may have their advantage where economy is the 

 object ; but, with the exception of baked bread made of 

 rye, barley, and oats, and slightly leavened, which is per- 

 haps the best food which can be given to slow-working 

 horses, there is nothing so congenial to the healthy stomach 

 of a horse as good hay and dry oats, or beans bruised in a 

 mill and mixed with cut chaff. They require no cooking 

 to be fully digested, and the digestive power of the horse 

 will extract all the nourishment which they contain. But 

 there are cheaper fodders than hay and corn, especially in 

 summer, when they can be given fresh and green. Tares, 

 clover, lucern, and sainfoin, cut as they are wanted, will 

 keep a horse in health and working condition with little 

 or no corn, and at a comparatively trifling expense ; car- 

 rots are peculiarly relished by horses, and are very whole- 

 some ; and Swedish turnips, or ruta baga, given raw in 

 moderate quantities make their skins "shine, and thus 

 prove that they tend to keep them in condition. Every 

 prudent farmer takes care to have a sufficient supply of 

 these cheaper substitutes for hay and corn, keeping these 

 'ast as a reserve and auxiliary to the former. In a prize 

 Essay of the Highland and Agricultural Society on the 

 comparative advantages of raw and boiled grain as food 

 or farm-horses, the author adduces some experiments, 

 which lead to the conclusion that there is no advantage 

 n boiling grain, but rather the contrary. The cost of 

 keep of a horse per day on different food" has been "-iven 

 as follows : 



Id. 

 9 

 1 

 1*. 



1 0* 



Gd. 



10 Ibs. of straw cut into chaff . 

 10 Ibs. of oats, at 3s. per bushel 

 16 Ibs. of turnips, at lUv. per ton 

 Expense of cutting . . 



or 16 Ibs. of hay, at 3?. &/. per cwt. 

 5 Ibs. of oats, at 3-v. per bushel 

 16 Ibs. turnips, at 10*. per tun 



or 28 Ibs. of steamed turnips 



7 Ibs. of coals, at 1*. per bushel 

 Expense of steaming 

 10 Ibs. of straw, at 11. per ton . 



This last appears the most economical food, but steamed 

 turnips and straw only would probably not keep a horse in 

 good working condition, and it is not said how long the 

 experiment, was continued, nor whether the horses thus 

 fed lost weight. The food is also valued at a low rate. 



It is evident that if farm-horses can be kept in condition 

 for 6Jrf. a day, which is not 4*. a week, while on hay and 

 oats, in the common mode of feeding, they will cost more 

 than double that sum, the saving in a year would amount to 

 nearly 10/. on each horse ; and as every twenty-five acres of 

 a farm of moderately light land will require one horse for its 

 cultivation, there will be a saving of 8s. per acre, probably 

 half the rent, and more than half the profit. However 

 this may be, there is no doubt that it is of great import- 

 ance to ascertain what is, on the whole, the best and 

 cheapest mode of feeding farm-horses ; and without en- 

 tering into minute calculations, it will be found that 

 various artificial grasses may be made to succeed each 

 other, by successive sowings, so regularly, that the horses 

 shall be kept for six months of the year entirely on suc- 

 culent green food, which will enable them to do all the 

 necessary work, and keep them in good health and con- 

 dition. Thus with the help of carrots, potatoes, and ruta 

 baga, a great saving of hay and oats may be effected in 

 winter, and these crops will take up much less land 

 for their production than hay and oats, and exhaust the 

 soil less; if we except potatoes, which are more profitably 

 used as human food or to fatten pigs. 



The example of tradesmen and manufacturers who keep 

 horses, and cut all the hay which they use into chatf, mix- 

 ing it with oats, may be good for a farmer to follow, where 

 hay is scarce and beans a good price : but otherwise it is 

 fully as economical to give the nay in racks, provided no 

 more be given at once than a horse will eat up entirely, 



Vol. XXIV.-T 



