406 HANDY-BOOK OP HUSBANDRY. 



economical keeping and to the long-sustained usefulness of the 

 horse than proper feeding. The horse is always kept in a more or 

 less artificial condition. His food is generally much richer than 

 that which he would obtain in a state of nature, and the amount 

 of steady exercise which is required of him is very much greater. 

 It has been found by long experience that his artificial condition 

 requires equally artificial treatment ; but, so far as farm-horses are 

 concerned, the accompaniments of warm clothing, bandaging the 

 legs, and habitual sweating, may be dispensed with. The regular, 

 thorough, daily grooming, however, and such housing as is neces- 

 sary to prevent undue exposure to cold or to drafts, are as import- 

 ant with farm teams as with those kept for fast work. The 

 amount of food consumed will be less, and the ability to perform 

 work will be greater, if the animals are every day thoroughly well 

 curried and brushed. The horse's legs and pasterns in particular, 

 and the setting on of the mane, should be efficiently cleansed and 

 rubbed ; and he should be kept in all respects in a cleanly, tidy, 

 cheerful, and healthy condition. 



Horses, properly kept and regularly worked, are but little liable 

 to disease, and where the team force of the farm is neither too 

 small nor too great, their work is performed at an economical rate; 

 but where they are either overworked or allowed to stand long 

 idle, they are exceedingly expensive and hazardous property. 

 Properly kept, properly managed, and properly used, horses are, 

 in the main, much cheaper than oxen, because they perform their 

 work with so much greater celerity ; but, in the ramshackle stable 

 system that prevails on a majority of farms, oxen, which are too 

 slow and too stupid to be easily abused, and which will keep in 

 condition on less nutritious food, are generally most esteemed. 

 One important effect of their selection, however, in place of 

 horses, is a great waste of the labor of the farm-hands. The 

 difference between plowing an acre a day or an acre and a half, 

 between traveling ten miles or fifteen in the same number of 

 hours, is one of those differences which are constantly under- 

 mining our calculations for profit. Good and profitable farming 

 necessarily implies brisk and active work on the part of every man 



