Horses — Manures. 
303 
good. On some of the sandy soils and in the south of the county 
pair-horse pk)ughs are common ; hardly any oxen are used for 
labour. Buckinghamshire has often the credit of producing 
those magnificent dray-horses for which the London breweries 
are so celebrated. These noble animals are not bred in Bucks, 
but are purchased from Warwickshire and the northern counties, 
especially at Rugby Martinmas fair. Two-year old colts are 
grazed on the rich pastures for about twelve months, by which 
time they become well furnished and very fat. Dealers then buy 
them for London and elsewhere, and some idea of the extent of 
the numbers which are purchased may be formed from the fact 
that one Kentish dealer, during five months of the last year, paid 
for colts, in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury alone, the large 
sum of 9000/. The prices which are realized for these horses 
are sometimes very great : 50/. is a common figure, while prices 
varying from 60/. to 80/. are sometimes heard of. Some farmers 
glaze eight or ten of these colts, and they pay from 10/. to 12/. 
for a year's keep ; but they are exposed to more risk than cattle, 
as in cases of death, accident, or blemish, the losses with horses 
are very severe. Most of the dairymen breed a foal or two ; 
these ai-e sold off as sucklers, or kept till they are two or three 
years old. 
Manures, 
There is nothing very commendable in the manufacture of 
farm-yard manure. On arable lands, where there is plenty of 
straw, there is little animal excrement to enrich it ; and on grass 
farms there is often an insufficiency of straw to keep the cattle 
clean. On the former, it often happens that a dry cow or two, 
a few young stock, with some store pigs, constitute the whole 
force for eating and treading into manure 100 acres of straw. In 
making: manure the two agricultural districts sometimes assist 
each other. The grass-land farmer sends his store cattle or dry 
cows to his neighbour's yard, where they have an abundant sup- 
ply of straw gratis, the owner of the stock supplying each with a 
linseed cake daily ; then in the summer the arable farmer sends 
his colts and other stock into the grass-grounds, where he pays 
for their keep according to the size of the animal and quality of 
the grass. North of the chalks, the farm-yard manure is mostly 
applied for turnips and beans : on the Chilterns it is more often 
used for wheat. The former appears the most reasonable way of 
dressing the land, especially as wheats, when heavily manured, 
are often attacked by blight and mildew. Manure for grass-land 
is by some applied directly the hay is off ; by others it is carted 
on during the winter months. The liquid manure is too often 
allowed to run away, and, in more instances than one, on grass- 
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