128 Management and Feeding of Heavy Horses 



has four horses to feed and groom, a boy or a labourer helping 

 to work them during the hours they are in the field. This plan 

 fits in with the system of the long single-file teams, and appears 

 to work well on some farms where the teams are prepared for the 

 work of the London streets. But for general economical farming 

 the system of pairs is the best. Two horses is enough for one 

 man to attend to in the morning ana at night if he has to do a 

 full day's work in the field. The most of the farm irriplements 

 are made now for two horses; the old heavy cultivators are being 

 replaced by lighter ones, so that, except in the districts of the long 

 teams, nearly all the work of cultivating the soil and securing the 

 crops is done by two-horse implements. 



On some large farms the feeding of the horses is entrusted, as in 

 contractors' stables, to one man appointed for the work; but on 

 most farms the man who works the horses has to feed them, his 

 corn being delivered to him weekly by the farmer himself or his 

 foreman, each man having a coffer or chest sufficiently large to hold 

 a week's supply. 



With farm horses, whose work is not so regular as horses on the 

 road, the feed must be regulated according to the work. In wet 

 weather they may be idle many days; in frosty or snowy weather 

 they may also be idle. Then, when fine weather sets in they may 

 have to do a bit extra. Wheat sowing and mangel carting are 

 trying times on the horses, so is turnip sowing and harvest work ; 

 so that it is advisable to regulate the feed according to the time of 

 year and work on hand. 



On most farms the horses have the chance of a run out on 

 pasture during a few months in summer, when they can spend their 

 nights and idle days out of doors. This is very beneficial to the 

 health of the horses. On some arable farms, however, there may 

 be no pasture available for the horses, so that they may have to 

 remain in the stable or be turned loose into a yard, green food being 

 carted to them. Vetches, clovers of the first and second mowing, 

 meadow grass, or green oats come in handy for that purpose. 

 When the second cutting of clover is finished, some long hay should 

 be given to the horses. On some north-country farms, however, 

 the horses have to eat oat straw or bean straw, no hay being avail- 

 able. The feed of corn has thus to be regulated by the quality of 

 the fodder, as well as by the pressure of the work. A sort of 

 standard for, the horses when busy, and having straw only in their 

 racks, would be for each pair per week, a mixture made up as 

 follows: — 112 lb. oats (crushed); 56 lb. maize (cracked); 84 lb. 

 beans (cracked); 30 lb. bran — mixed with chopped hay. This makes 



