138 Our Farming. 



soon began to say, "What undej the sun does Terry feed those 

 horses on to make them gain so. Why just look at them !" Yes, 

 they gained on the scales 320 pounds within a few months, and it 

 taxed my strength and skill to the utmost to handle them. Every 

 one turned around and looked after I got by. That good old 

 neighbor looked a little sour when I would ask him if he thought 

 they had run down any yet. In those days I was drawing pro- 

 duce to Akron, twelve miles, almost daily, for months, with these 

 horses, and I kept them right up in high condition. They were 

 never driven off from a walk, but they got around as quickly as 

 those who trotted. They have walked to Akron with a heavy 

 load in three hours and thirty-five minutes, and back in three 

 hours always, within ten minutes. About this time there was a 

 good deal of excitement over the matter. Probably no one be- 

 lieved that they received no grain of any kind. Visitors, when 

 they thought I was not looking, examined every corner of my 

 barn, looking for grain. I fed none and had none. At last I 

 offered a reward of $500, I think it was, in the paper, to anyone 

 who would prove that they had anything but clover hay, salt and 

 water. For ten years they have done my work and are strong 

 and healthy, and have never, I think, weighed less than when I 

 bought them, although they are getting old now, and, perhaps, 

 hardly keep up. I have often driven one twenty-five miles in 

 half a day on the road ; but they are too heavy for such driving. 

 We have now a lighter team for driving that we feed some oats 

 to, four quarts each a day now, and the balance clover hay. I 

 endured a good deal to carry my point and show what could be 

 done with clover. Some ladies wrote me as though they thought 

 I was abusing the horses. One friend in the papers imagined 

 them as resembling whey -fed calves. At one institute, I well re- 

 member the audience were going for me unmercifully thought I 

 was lying. The speaker with me, had ridden behind the horses, 

 and knew just what high condition they were in, and said to me 

 when looking at them : ' ' Terry, you never can afford to keep 

 such a fine team. ' ' But he was utterly mum before this doubting 

 audience, leaving the impression that even a neighbor would not 

 back me. And still I used to hate to drive into Akron, so many 

 wanted to buy that team, when the clover had got them in such 

 high condition. I refused $500 for them, although I paid but 

 $380 the fall before. I meant to carry my experiment through. 

 Hundreds of visitors during these ten years, from every part of 

 the country, have seen the horses, and I hope some have been 

 helped to see the feeding value of clover. 



The nutriment is in the clover hay, it is only a matter of 

 having the animal able to eat enough to get it. This would not 

 do for a slim road horse. Ours were chunked -built work horses, 

 and as they were fed and driven were all right. I am not advis- 

 ing the practice, but this is what I have done, and should do 



