AGUICrLTUilAL MUSEUM 1^ 



" The number of cart-horses employed in Great Bri* 

 lain, has beetl stated by Mr. Pitt, of Pcndeford, Staf- 

 fordshire, to be about 500,0(^0, of which we are ready to 

 admit that 200,000 may be useful, the remainder abso- 

 lutely superlluous. 'J'hese 300,000 consume, at a very 

 moderate calculation, for nine months out of twelve, one 

 |)eck of corn per day each, that is, 63 bushels each per 

 annum. At 9 lb. per peck, and wheat at 15lb. per peck 

 (GO lb per bushel ) the fair average weights, 63 bushels of 

 oats equal nearly 36 bushels of wheat. A quartern loaf, 

 weighing 4 lb. 5 oz. some may think too short an allow- 

 ance per week ; to a labouring man, in health, it probably 

 may be so ; but upon the average of the whole mass of 

 population, th\s calculation is generally thought to he 

 correct : at this rate, fourteen fjuartern loaves work up jt 

 bushel of wheat ; but two loaves may be allowed for bran 

 and waste in grinding. Twelve quartern loaves re 

 main, which, at one loaf per week, make four busheks 

 and three quarters to each person annually. In Scot- 

 jand,.indeed, where oats are the food both of men and 

 iiorsesj this comj)ai'ison need not be drawn. A man, 

 with a wife and four oliildren, requires on an average 

 about four pecks of good oats per w eek (10 lb. per peckX 

 ^08 pecks, or 62 bushels per ann. ; a labouring iiorsc a 

 peck and a quarter per day, for eight months in the year — - 

 280 pecks, or 70 Winchester bushels per ann. 



'- It aj)pears, therefore, that one cart-horse moderately, 

 or rather immoderately fed, consumes more than the 

 corn or bread of seven persons ; so that 300,000 cart- 

 horses consume annually, as much or more than 2,100,000 

 persons ; which admitting the population to be ten milli- 

 ons, is more than a fifth part of the whole. Here then is 

 a loss of more than ten weeks consumption of the whole 

 kingdom. Admitting the import to be equal to six weeks, 

 there will remain for export one month's consumption, 

 or one twelfth of the whole produce, to say nothing of the 

 supply of beef arising from the substitution of oxen, 

 which of itself would make a very great difference. Thi? 



