Affrieulture of Berlishire. 
35 
located together. Some may say that this riddance Is easier to 
talk about than to accomplish ; but having, in more than one 
instance, entirely extirpated these pests from situations where 
they once swarmed — an undertaking in which their proximity to 
water rendered the task peculiarly difficult — I feel authorised to 
speak decidedly on the subject. No extraordinary means are 
required, but simply to keep a tidy rick-yard, with no heaps 
of loose straw or litter lying about, and to keep the barns well 
cleared out as soon as the corn is threshed. The stock can 
then be easily killed down ; and If afterwards a trifle Is paid for 
each rat killed. If the ricks are dressed in the usual way and 
some good cats are kept, another invasion of rats need not be 
feared. To prove that there can be no objection to placing corn 
on the ground, I have, within the last four years, taken down ten 
or twelve rick-stands, as from observation I found, when the ricks 
were threshed, there were always fewer mice in those standing on 
the ground than in the others on stands. The mice are brought 
home at harvest in the corn, and when put on stands are pre- 
served there ; whereas, when put on the ground, they get to the 
outsldes of the rick, and are either killed or make their escape. 
Farm Horses. 
This county is not celebrated ffor any particular breed of 
horses. A good many farmers, who have the accommodation of 
a few pieces of pasture land, breed two or three colts yearly, 
which are broken-in when two years old. For the first two years 
two colts are generally reckoned to do the work of one horse ; by 
this means one of the oldest horses is sold out each year and the 
team Is kept young. But the greater part buy at the local fairs 
in the neighbourhood the colts which are brought by dealers from 
the north : by buying In two or three every year and then 
selling the oldest horses, efficient teams are kept up. Others still 
continue the practice of buying good eolts at from 35 to 45 
guineas each, and then of making up two or three of their best 
horses yearly, of which high prices are made for the London 
drays ; in this case the older horses are often nearly worked out. 
About four horses to every 100 acres of ploughed land are kept 
on the heavy soils, and three to the 100 acres on the lighter soils, 
where the threshing, chaff-cutting, &c., is done by steam-power. 
On the whole the horses are good and well chosen, so much so 
that I may almost venture to say the character of the horses shows 
the character of the soil on which they work : on the light tillage 
lands they are clean and active, sometimes crossed with the 
Suffolk ; on the heavier soils they are rather less active and more 
powerful, but not of the old fashioned hairy-legged breed, a 
specimen of which Is now seldom seen in the county, although 
D 
