FARMERS' REGISTER— HORSE FEEDING, &c. 



51 



mas on grasses n-orth £6 the acre, with two 

 quarters ol" oats each, at 24s. to be given on work- 

 ing days, and troni that time to be allowed each 

 10 lbs. daily of bruised beans, ground oats, or bar- 

 ley, with 12 lbs. ol" clover or sainfoin hay, and 

 20 lbs. ol" straw or haulm for botii chaft" and litter; 

 and calculating that quantity ol" each species ol" 

 grain to be worth 9d.,* hay at 6.5s., and straw, or 

 haulm, 20s. per ton,t on the liirm — which may be 

 about the ])resent home value of the best quali- 

 ties in most jilaces — the cost of feeding and tar- 

 riery would be: — 



20 weeks, 140 per- 

 ches, at 9d. 

 2 qrs. oats 24s. 



One horse 

 Summer soilin 



^ 



5 



2 8 



r. u • ^ Corn lOlbs. per > ,, 



One horse wui- , . „ , ^ > 



7 13 



ter-feeding per 

 week. 



day, at 9d. 

 Hay 1^- truss, 19-^^ 2 5;| 

 Straw 14- cwt. Is. 13 



32 weeks, --08 11:^=14 6 

 Shoeing and farriery, - - 1 10 



£23 9 



The annual charge of maintaining a single 

 horse being thus ascertained, there remains to be 

 added to the collective expense of the team, the 

 interest of the capital sunk in their purchase, and 

 in that of the implements for their use, including 

 a wagon and carts, with their gear; and allowing 

 these to cost £ 140, and the horses and harness, 

 one with another, to stand in £26 each, with ten 

 per cent, tor repeurs and deterioration of value, the 

 whole account will appear thus: 



£. s. d. 

 Maintenance of 5 horses at £ 23 



9s. each, - - - - - 117 

 Interest on £270, cost of teams 



and implements, at 5 per cent. £ 13 10 

 Repairs and deterioration of dit 



to at 10 per cent. 



5 



27 



First carter| — weekly wages, 31 5 

 C annual wages, 10 

 Second do. — < boai-d at 6s. per 



40 10 



week. 



- 15 12 



Stable and contingent expenses, - 



Labor. 



56 17 

 10 



£224 12 



The annual labor of a man and a pair of horses, 

 with the necessary implements, will therefore cost 

 £89 16s. 2J., or, "throwhig fractional parts aside, 

 6s. for every working day; but, as many elays 

 occur on which they are only hali] or not at all em- 



* See note, p. 145, but those are assumed as the 

 market prices; here they should be lower. 



t In point of fact, no charge should be made for 

 straw when it is not allowed to be sold; for, if not 

 eaten, it must be consumed as litter; and when charged 

 to cattle, it must be again allowed for, in account, as 

 dung. 



X The estimate of wages and board for each of the 

 men is taken betweenthe highest and lowest rate; for 

 out-door and in-door servants were both kept either in, 

 or out of the house-^the amount, at a medium rate, 

 would ba nearly similar. 



j)loyed, more than five days in each week, or 260 

 in the year, cannot be cafcidated on, which gives 

 nearly 7s. per day, as the actual expense; and pre- 

 suming them to be adequate to the cultivation of 

 40 to 60 acres, the tillage in each case will cost — 

 89£ . 16s. 2d. C 40 acres == 2£ . 5s. Od. ^ 



< 50 " =1 16 > per acre. 

 say90£. ( 60 " =1 10 ) 



It will perhaps be objected, that as all the other 

 work of a farm, such as statute-labor, carriage ot 

 materials tor drains, repairs, &c. is also performed 

 by tlie same teams, the entire charge should not 

 lidl upon the tillage; but, as all those operations 

 are incidental to the cultivation of the land, they 

 may, in fact, be regarded as forming part of it, and 

 any separate estimate would not alter the tottJ 

 amount of the annual expense. Whenever it may 

 be material to ascertain the actual cost of any spe- 

 cific work, the time it occupies being known, the 

 calculation can be readily made according to the 

 above valuation; and farmers woidd find it useful m 

 enabling them to form a correct judgment on many 

 points of great importance were they to make out an 

 accomit of the actual expense of their teams, and to 

 charge each day's w-ork against the particular object 

 on which it was employed. But in calculating the 

 cost ot" the tillage of any one field, the mere charge 

 of each day's ordinary Avork would be a fallacious 

 guide; for that would only show the labor actually 

 expended on the land A\ithout any share of the in- 

 cidental labor of the whole farm: in such estimates, 

 theretbre, the annual expense of the team must be 

 divided by tlte number of days consumed in tUlage 

 only; and supposing that to amount to but two- 

 thirds of the entire labor, it would follow that, 

 when each day's labor throughout the whole year 

 costs 7s. the charge ibr a day's ploughing should 

 be lOs.Gd. 



The daily labor of a team must necessarily be 

 regulated by the maimer in which it is employed^ 

 as well as by its strength. In some of the south- 

 ern and midland counties, the carters who gene- 

 rally sleep in the house, rise at four in the moriiing, 

 teed, clean, and harness the horses, get breakfast, 

 mid are ready to go a-field at six-'clock, or after 

 seven in the AN-iuter, when they work till two, thus 

 making at (he utmost a yoking of eight hours. 

 When the horses return to the stable they have a 

 little hay given to them whOe their attendants have 

 dinner, by which time it is past four, when one of 

 the men curries, feeds, and litters them down, 

 while the other fetches their provender, either- 

 green or dry, and usually finishes his evening by 

 a lounge at the smithy, either to get the plough- 

 share pointed, or to have some talk with his fel- 

 lows, until the hour of eiglit leads him home to 

 supper. Throughout the north, however, the 

 usual hours of work are, in the spring and sum- 

 mer, from six to eleven, and from two to six, 

 or seven, allowing the intermediate three hours lor 

 rest and feedino-: in winter, at the utmost from se- 

 ven to four, witn one or two hours' rest at mid-day; 

 though, at that season, it is a better practice to 

 finish the day's work, without returning to the sta- 

 ble, at one bout of seven hours, during Avhich the 

 horses may get a feed from their nose-bags, wliile 

 the ploughman takes his lunch, which he carries 

 ' with him to the field. The connnon calculation 

 is, tliat, taking the year round, an acre of land is 

 thus ploughed in a day; and, generally speaking, 

 this may not be wide of the fact: but the exact 



