32 HORSES AND HOUXDS. 



made nor used. The horses employed were of a superior de- 

 scription, and tlieir drivers Scotchmen, with Scotch ploughs. 

 The allowance of food to each horse was about a peck of oats, 

 which were bruised, with a little clean wheat straw at night. 

 The working hours were from seven in the morning until 

 twelve, when the horses were brought into the stable, fed,_ and 

 rested for two hours, and then worked again until five or six in 

 the evening, as their services might be required. This was, of 

 course, only during the spring, summer, and autumn months, 

 when the days were long. The horses thus treated were in 

 first-rate condition, and full of hard flesh. 



The system thus pursued on Lord Ducie's farm proves that for 

 slow work carrots and corn are sufficient to keep horses in good 

 working condition, and even above the usual condition, which, 

 thej'' certainly were when I saw them. I do not suppose that 

 race-horses and hunters, whose bodily exertions are sometimes 

 so severely taxed, would upon this same diet be enabled to go 

 through their performances ; but I think that the prejudices 

 which some men entertain against carrots being given at all, 

 either to race-horses or hunters, are unfounded, and that they 

 may be given not only safely, but Avith advantage both ta the 

 wind and health of the horse during the hunting season, two or 

 three times a week. "With draught horses certainly a great saving 

 of hay may be effected by their use, nor does there exist any 

 necessity for hay being given at all to horses required solely for 

 this purpose ; when used by being cut into chaff, the consump- 

 tion may be reduced to one-half the usual quantity, mixing it with 

 two parts of wheat straw cut also into chaff". The straw of oats^ 

 when cut early and well harvested, is also a good substitute for 

 hay ; but I am no advocate for barley straw being given to horses 

 in work, although it may do very well for cattle. By the example 

 set upon Lord Ducie's farm, it has been proved that horses can 

 be kept in first-rate working condition, and that both cattle and 

 sheep can be made fat for the butcher, without ever tasting hay 

 at all. It may be asked, why dispense with the use of hay, cui 

 hono ? The answer is, that an acre of land which will produce 

 two tons of hay, will produce from twenty to thirty tons of 

 mangold wurzel, carrots, or Swedish turnips. The usual allow- 

 ance of hay to a horse being about a hundredweight per week, 

 (and this, with the waste where hay is used, is a fair calculation,) 

 you set off the value of the root crop against the hay crop; the 

 former may be put down at 1/. per ton, and the latter at 

 3^. ; you have, therefore, three times tlie money value in 

 the roots, after deducting the expenses of cultivation, not to 

 mention the extra quantity of manure which will be returned to 

 the land. 



