70 ON CUTTING AND PREPARi:?G FEED. 



2,000 quarters were bought at country markets, for the horses 

 he kept two or three stages distant from London. Prior to the high 

 prices of last year, he allowed his horses as much corn and hay 

 as they would eat ; and on an average they consumed 2 pecks 

 or 16 quarts of oats per day, and every 20 horses had a load 

 of 18 cwt. of hay per week. For the last twenty years, with 

 the exception of the two last, the best hay (which it was always 

 necessary to purchase for stage coach horses) might, on an aver- 

 age, be about £5 per load ; but last year it rose from £6 to 

 even £10 per load ; and oats this year (1812) rose from 20s. 

 to £4 and upwards, per quarter ; at which price, if oats had 

 been given in the usual quantity, it would have been impossible 

 to carry on the business of stage coaches. It became necessary, 

 llierefore, either to give up that concern, or to hit upon some 

 new mode of feeding horses. 



" Beans had formerly been purchased, before the new harvest 

 began, at from £3 to £3 10s. per quarter. In the expectation 

 of beans continuing at nearly this rate, Mr. Willan was led to 

 erect a machine to be worked by two horses, for crushing beans 

 and cutting chafFat the same time ; and for some time he found 

 considerable advantage from the practice ; but beans gradually 

 rose in price, until they reached £6 per quarter. Even at that 

 price, however, he finds it of advantage to use old beans, mixed 

 with new oats and chaff, in the following manner. Having har- 

 vested well a considerable quantity of oats, it occurred to him 

 that it would be of use, instead of threshing the corn, (i.e. the 

 oats. H. C.) to cut the straw and oats together into chaff; and 

 now to each horse he gives per day, the following quantities of 

 food, namely : 1. Haifa bushel of cut chaff, amongst which 

 there is probably about a quarter peck of oats, but which must 

 vary according to the season, whether favorable to the produc- 

 tion of straw or corn, (oats.) 2. Half a peck of crushed old 

 beans ; and, 3. Haifa peck of new oats. This mode of feed- 

 ing Mr. Willan considers as healthful for the horse, and enables 

 him logo through the severest labor. The public advantages to 

 be derived from this mode of feeding horses are of the greatest 

 !ini)urlancc. The expense of feeding horses may thus be con- 



