HORSE. 



777 



ever, that Mr. Marshall is speaking of the general 

 economy of the country, and with the view to having 

 common horse-work, in agriculture and conveyance, 

 conducted in the most economical manner, and in 

 accordance with the means of obtaining the greatest 

 supply of all kinds of farm produce, and using it in 

 the most economical manner. In this point of view 

 Mr. Marshall does right ; for the dray-horse is a 

 horse fitted only for very particular services ; and 

 from the great quantity of food which he consumes, 

 as well as from the shortness of his wind, and the 

 consequent frequency of rest which he needs, he 

 would he the most unprofitable horse that the farmer 

 or the carrier could possibly keep. Even in his ap- 

 propriate situation, that of a London brewer's dray, 

 lie is really almost as much an animal of show as of 

 use ; and though the momentary pull that he can 

 take, and his power of starting a heavy load, which 

 power he derives from his weight, are probably 

 greater than those of any other breed, yet for conti- 

 nuance of work he is certainly inferior. 



It is understood, however, that crossing between 

 this breed and the " rips," or ragged horses, which 

 are used in the country, and accustomed to stand all 

 weathers, produces a breed possessing part of the 

 weight of the one, and much of the hardihood of the 

 other. The horses employed in drawing coal-wag- 

 gons and other heavy carriages about the streets of 

 London, where the traction required is great, and 

 requires mass in the horses, and also continues and 

 requires wind, and bone and sinew rather than fulness 

 of flesh, are understood to be about the nearest cross 

 to the dray-horse in this respect ; and when we get 

 to the waggon-horses, which ply constantly in slow 

 draught along the roads, and creep on for very long 

 distances without halting, we get a nearer approxima- 

 tion to the common country breed, until at last all 

 traces of the dray-horse are lost, and we come to an 

 animal which can endure all labour, and stand all 

 weathers, but which, at the same time, is by no 

 means handsome, neither is it very effective at a short 

 dead pull. It may be of use to some of our readers 

 to present them with a list of the characters of a first-rate 

 'lorse for agricultural purposes, as given by Mr. Cul- 

 !ey, in his treatise on live stock. " His head should 

 be as small as the proportion of the animal will ad- 

 mit ; his nostrils expanded, and muzzle fine ; his eyes 

 cheerful and prominent ; his ears small, upright, and 

 placed near together ; his neck, rising out from be- 

 tween his shoulders with an easy tapering curve, 

 must join gracefully to the head ; his shoulders being 

 well thrown back, must also go into his neck (at what 

 is called the points) unperceived, which perhaps faci- 

 litates the going much more than the narrow shoulder ; 

 the arm, or fore thigh, should be muscular, and taper- 

 ing from the shoulder, met with a fine, straight, 

 sinewy, bony leg ; the hoof circular and wide at the 

 heel ; his chest deep, and full at the girth ; his loin 

 or fillets broad and straight, and body round; his 

 hips, or hucks, by no means wide, but quarters long, 

 and tail set on so as to be nearly in the same straight 

 line with the back ; his thighs strong and muscular ; 

 his legs clean and fine-boned ; his leg-bones not 

 round, but what is called lathy, or flat." 



There are several breeds of named horses, which 

 are conspicuous for their superior usefulness in har- 

 ness, either as coach horses or for farm-work, among 

 which we may notice 



The Cleveland Bays. These are, perhaps, the 



j most handsome working-horses in England, and, in- 

 deed, in the world ; though it is alleged that of late 

 years they have fallen ott! When pure they contain 

 a certain fraction of the blood of the race-horse in 

 them, and, by necessary consequence, some of that of 

 the Arab ; but they are strong and hardy, as well as 

 exceedingly active. A pair of them are heavy 

 enough for drawing a two-horse plough in all but the 

 very stiffest lands ; and as they step well out, tlicv 

 turn the furrow with more rapidity than almost any 

 other horses ; while their wind is excellent, they can 

 continue long at work, and their keep is not very 

 expensive. In ordinary draught, three of them have 

 been known to pull a ton and a half over sixty miles' 

 distance in the twenty-four hours, without requiring 

 any rest except three moderate feeds in the course 

 of the journey. In the plough, the labour of a pair, 

 on the average, for continuance of days, is about aii 

 acre a day, which occupies nine hours, in two yokings, 

 morning and evening, with a rest at mid-day ; 

 and substantial food, of which the quantity re- 

 quires to be smaller than if the quality were inferior, 

 is by far the most economical, as upon such food the 

 horses will do more work with less fatigue, keep their 

 health better, and last much longer. It may not be 

 amiss to mention, that the entire length of furrow in 

 one acre is rather more than eleven miles and a half 

 so that they pull the plough along, and turn the fur- 

 row at the rate of more than a mile and a quarter in 

 the hour, or, making allowance for turnings, about a 

 mile and a half at full swing ; and if the land is free 

 and light, an excellent pair, with a clever ploughman, 

 will " slice away'' at the rate of two miles an hour ; 

 and with such horses, and a swing plough of the best 

 construction, the same quality of land may be turned 

 in finer style, at less than half the expense that it can 

 be turned by the team of "ragged-rips," and the lum- 

 bering wheel- plough, which is used in too many parts 

 of the country. Every one who employs horses in 

 working, ought to know that the greater the number 

 employed to any one draught, the greater the loss of 

 power upon each horse, because it is impossible for 

 any training to make them all pull together ; and if 

 the number is above five or six, or even as many, it is 

 perhaps not too much to say, that the entire labour of 

 one horse is lost. In those clumsy teams, too, which 

 crawl like snails along the road or the furrow, there is 

 a great mechanical disadvantage, which is avoided 

 by more light arid lively working. Every one knows 

 that much greater power is required to start any 

 motion, than to keep it up after it is started ; and as 

 they creep along, the whole may be said to be a 

 succession of starts, and these starts, in a great 

 measure governed, by individual efforts. 



On the other hand, when a well-matched pair 

 move onward, keeping step as truly as a file of 

 grenadiers, both shoulders are constantly at their 

 bearing, the plough or the wheel acquires a mo- 

 mentum ; and so little do the horses feel it, if 

 they be well chosen and properly attended to, 

 that they will do equal work to four of the 

 others, without a turned hair at the end of it. 

 Nor is the beauty of this superior style of ploughing 

 by any means to be overlooked ; for if the work is 

 elegant, a portion of the elegance will be imparted 

 both to the workman and the looker-on. Where the 

 land is laid out in breadth, with belts of planting 

 between, hilU rising- beyond, and the fertilizing river 

 sweeping, or the sea breaking in gentle ripples to the 



