416 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HORSES. 



like that of a man. He requires a pure air, good 

 water, sound sweet food, and good exercise. He 

 cannot be in full possession of his powers, if either 

 of the above things be wanting. Tlie mule is 

 very much liiic the liorse in constitution. He can 

 endure coarser fin-e. In addhion to the labor of 

 the horse and mule, their dung is valuable as 

 manure. Tlieir management should therelbrc be 

 each as to get from them tlie greatest quantity of 

 labor, consistent with their health and longevity, 

 and also consistent with making the most of their 

 manure. 



The stable should be situated on a high, dry, 

 and air}' place, and if the estate admits of it, on a 

 gray or sandy soil. I should prefer stables built 

 like the stables for race horses, in rows ot single 

 rooms, about twelve teet by ten for each horse, 

 with a rack, and a manger that will hold one and 

 a half bushels. The pilch of the stable should be 

 ten or eleven feet, so as to give a plenty of air. I 

 should prefer stables made of logs, notched down 

 as close as convenient, the cracks that remain lett 

 open. If the stable is made otherwise, so as to 

 let several horses in the same door, for double rows 

 of stalls, the stable lor six horses should be 28 feet 

 long, 18 feet wide, and 12 teet pitch, and with a 

 dirt^tloor. The stalls should be planked from the 

 floor close to the top. The stall should be 7^ i'eet 

 long, the hind part about 4.^ liigh, the Iront reach- 

 mg to the top of the rack, and the floor so levelled 

 arid inclined, that the urine will run out of the 

 stalls into the passage, and from the passage out 

 on each side of the house. The horse or mule to 

 be fastened in his stall, by a chain with a leather 

 strap around his neck. This is cheapest: the strap 

 will last ten years, the chain forever. Ropes wall 

 cost less, but'must be renewed annually. I object 

 to several horses being loose in the same stable to- 

 gether. Some good managers in other respects, 

 do this. The horses bred together may be quiet 

 and disturb each other but little. But generally, 

 when several horses are loose in the same stable 

 together, they disturb each otherj and this is more 

 certainly the ca%e with mules. A single restless 

 horse or mule, will deprive all in the stable wnth 

 him from rest and sleep. Each horse has not only 

 to contend with his own, but with the accumulated 

 filth and stench produced by all the rest. This of 

 itself is an insuperable objection. 



Asrain, it is impracticable to allowance each 

 horse or mule with food, when fed in common with 

 others. With the stable should be enclosed from 

 one-quarter to one-half acre of land, covered with 

 turf, and having good shades, and kept as clean 

 and dry as possible. There should also be enclo- 

 sed another lot adjoining, of several acres, with 

 water, grass, and shade, and in addition, at one 

 side of the small lot a place should be enclosed to 

 carry the dung from the stable: and a shelter to 

 put it under, would be well worth the labor and 

 expense. The stable should have a supply of 

 old spades, or shovels, pronged hoes, forks, &c. 

 and for each pair of mules or horses, a wheelbar- 

 row, and a good curry comb and brush. As our 

 stock of cuttle eat all" the straw, we have no litter 

 for beds for our horses, except leaves from the fo- 

 rest. A supply of them should be hauled fi'om 

 time to time, and placed in a i)ile near the stable, 

 and each night the ploughman should put in a good 

 bed to each of his mules or horses, and the next 

 day cany out the whole contents of litter, dung, 



&c. down to the dirt of the floor; and carry It in 

 the wheelbarrov/ to the manure pen, and cover it 

 over with leaves, large piles of which should be 

 kept in the manure pen for the purpose. The 

 whole labor of placing the bed at night, and clean- 

 ing out the slable, and carrying the contents the 

 next day to the manure pen, will not occupy the 

 ploughman (there being one to each pair of mules 

 or horses) more than from three to ten minutes. 

 This mode of proceeding will prevent his horses 

 from being stuck up with their own filth, and will 

 enable the ploughman to keep his horses clean with 

 great ease. The usual mode of putting on leaves 

 tor the bed of a horse on dung and litter wet with 

 urine, and continuing for a week or more at a time, 

 will destroy the powers of a horse. Tiie stench 

 that rises in such a stable is most unwholesome, 

 and when the heat and fermentation has com- 

 menced in the litter under the horse, no matter 

 how well it may be covered by fresh leaves on the 

 top, the steam that rises from it will sicken and de- 

 bilitate the horse, and oflen produces scratches and 

 surfeit. In damp warm spells of weather, you 

 will often find the horse smoking with sweat when 

 lying in such a stable. Add to this the lot en- 

 closed, with the stable covered deep with leaves 

 in autumn, and then cattle fed upon it, and all the 

 dung from the stable mixed with this, and a spell 

 of wet weather upon it — no other place out of 

 this filthy stable for the horse to roll and cool him- 

 self at noon and night, when he comes in from his 

 work; and take into consideration the labor of the 

 ploughman to clean a horse thus exposed to filth. 

 This mode of treating the plough horses is very 

 commonly pursued, from a belief that it is neces- 

 sary to tread and mix up the dung from the stable 

 with the leaves in the stable yard, in order to 

 make manure. There never was a greater mis- 

 take. Such a course is totally inconsistent with 

 keeping the mules and horses in health and good 

 condition. No feeding and rubbing can keep them 

 up under hard work in such filth and stench. The 

 course is equally inconsistent with preserving the 

 manure. It is held to be a great evil by Sir H. 

 Davy, that wheat, barley, and other straw, is too 

 long to be mixed with tlie soil and ploughed in, 

 before it has undergone fermentation, as in the 

 process of fermentation it loses its very essence as ' 

 a manure. He thinks that machines for cutting it 

 short enough to mix in the soil with a plough, 

 might be aflbrded. This objection does not lie to 

 tlie leaves, as they are short enough to mix with 

 the soil. 



I refer to Sir II. Davy's book on Agricultural 

 Chemistry, Lecture VI. page 184, to prove that 

 vegetable manure should be mixed in the soils be- 

 fore it has fermented, and that it should be kept as 

 dry and cool, and tree fi-om exposure to the air as 

 possible. The erroneous practice of spreading 

 leaves and mixing dung, and treading with horses 

 and cattle, cannot be supported by reason or au- 

 thority. It clearly wastes every thing valuable as 

 a manure about any vegetable substance. This 

 would stri!<o every man at the first blush, when 

 applied to tobacco as a manure. Tobacco, w^e all 

 know, is one of the strongest vegetable manures. 

 Who does not know that its substance would be 

 vv'asted by laying it on the ground from November 

 to April, and exposed to the rains and treading of 

 cattle? The same process will injure an oak leaf, 

 not quite as much, because it has a stronger fibre. 



