No. 2. 



Horses — Oxen. 



45 



In the breweries in London, and in the 

 drays in the cities, horses of an enormous 

 size are employed ; and the same kind of 

 horses are employed on many of the farms. 

 The weight of one of them, ascertained in 

 my presence, exceeded seventeen hundred 

 pounds; and he was by no means extraordi- 

 nary lor size. I do not desire to see such 

 horses introduced among the farmers of the 

 United States. Their motion is slow and 

 clumsy, and their keep expensive. In cities, 

 where the vehicles are heavy, and the bur- 

 dens of coal, and beer, and other goods, very 

 great, they are well suited to the service for 

 which they are used. As tar as proportion, 

 colour, and action, are concerned, they are, 

 certainly, magnificent animals. With many 

 farmers, these horses are raised, not as being 

 preferred for farm labour, but for sale in the 

 cities ; and after being broken to service on 

 the farm, are, at a proper age, sent to mar- 

 ket. 



But the horse best adapted to agricultural 

 purposes is of a smaller size, a compact form, 

 short, strong, and muscular limbs, full-breast- 

 ed, and with round buttocks. There are three 

 breeds of horses in the kingdom, distinguished 

 for their valuable properties as farm horses ; 

 these are the Cleveland Bay, a horse of great 

 strength, and good size and figure; the Suf 

 folk Punch, a large and serviceable horse; 

 and especially the Clydesdale horse, almost 

 e.vclusively preferred among the excellent 

 farmers ot Scotland, particularly in the Lo- 

 thians. 1 have seen nothing superior, in my 

 humble judgment, to the last horse, for farm 

 labour, combining good size, with compact- 

 ness, strength, and action. In Ayrshire, the 

 farmers, being of an opinion that their tine 

 breed of horses was deteriorating, recently 

 imported a stallion from Flanders. This 

 horse was a model of compactness and 

 strength. He was fifteen and a half hands 

 high; his girth, behind his shoulders, was 

 seven feet four inches, and seventy-five inch- 

 es round his neck, at the base; he was twelve 

 years old, and cost sixty guineas, m Flan- 

 ders. 



in his picturesque village of Edensor; nor the humane 

 provision made by the late Lord Leicester for his aged 

 and decayed labourers, at Holkham; nor have wit- 

 nessed the extraordinary and beneficent exertions of 

 Lady Noel Byron, by allotments, loan, and benefit so- 

 cieties, and industrial schools, for the comfort, instruc- 

 sion, and improvement of herdepemiants and the poor; 

 nor the beneficent and parental conduct of many, many 

 others, to whom the strong and unaffected attachment 

 of their labourers and dependants evinces the deepest 

 sense of kindness, but whose names it might seem in- 

 vidious to mention,— without a grateful acknowledg- 

 ment of the goodness of Heaven, in making minds so 

 just and generous the almoners of its bounty. 



The farm horses in ploughing, are never 

 worked more than eight hours a day. The 

 ploughman feeds and cleans them at four 

 o'clock in the morning. They are harnessed 

 and the plough started at six o'clock. They 

 are brought to the stable again at two o'clock, 

 and fed, and thoroughly groomed, curried, 

 cleaned, bedded, &c., and left for the night, 

 at dark. The feed is almost always cut for 

 them, or if given long, given in small quan- 

 tities; and the oats and beans are crushed. 

 On one farm, the allowance for a farm horse 

 of the largest size was, two bushels of oats, 

 and one peck of beans, and two trus-ses of 

 hay, — fifty-six pounds each, — per week, in 

 winter; in summer, green feed, vetches, 

 clover, or rye grass, was substituted for the 

 hay. The general allowance is a peck of 

 grain, half oats and half beans, and fourteen 

 to sixteen pounds of hay, per day. The 

 army allowance for a horse is fourteen pounds 

 of hay, ten pounds of oats, and seven pounds 

 of straw, per day; "with hard, work, less 

 hay and more corn ; with little work, less 

 corn and more hay." The horses belonging 

 to the Queen's Guards, which are often to 

 be seen in the streets of London, and always 

 on state occasions, are beautiful animals, and 

 subjects of universal admiration. They are 

 of a black colour, and bred, I believe, on the 

 continent, purposely for the army. 



The general rule is, to keep, on arable 

 farms, a pair of horses for every forty acres; 

 in some cases the proportion of land to the 

 team is larger. One of the best farmers in 

 Scotland allows seven horses for two hun- 

 dred acres. His land is accessible, and ex- 

 tremely favourable for all farming operations. 

 The cost of keeping a working horse — ex- 

 clusive of interest or deterioration — he esti- 

 mates at twenty-five pounds, or more than 

 one hundred and twenty dollars per year. 

 The?e expenses all have reference to the 

 local prices of agricultural produce; and I 

 give them ratlier as matters of curiosity, than 

 of direct utility to my American readers. 

 The amount of ploughing for a day's work 

 is an acre of land, but in some cases, an 

 acre and a half. One farmer speaks of 

 ploughing, usually, seven acres in a week, 

 with one pair of horses. The furrow slice 

 varies from eight to eleven inches, and the 

 distance travelled in such case, is from 

 twelve to sixteen miles a day. It does not 

 lie within my province to speak of other 

 horses than those employed in agricultural 

 labour. 



Oxen are employed for farm labour to a 

 small extent, and in few counties. On Lord 

 Leicester's farm, at Holkham, so much and 

 so long celebrated,*they are used and worked 

 in leather harness; and in some places I 



