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X II. — On the Management of Fa7-m-Horses. By W. C. Spooner. 
Prizk Essay. 
The great importance of the subject of tins Essay cannot for a 
moment be disputed. Tlie vast amount of capital invested in 
farm-horses is nearly equal to the annual rent of the land cul- 
tivated by them, and the annual cost of keeping these horses is 
not less than their actual value. Thus if we take the number of 
acres of arable land in England and Wales as 13,100,000, and 
the rental as 12,000,000/.,* we have this large sum as representing 
the cost of our agricultural horses, and a similar or greater 
amount as the value of the food they annually consume. Though 
this may appear a rough method of making our estimate, I 
believe it to be not very far from the truth. These circumstances 
are sufficient to demonstrate the national importance of our sub- 
ject ; whilst its individual consequence to agriculturists may be 
enforced by the fact that not only is a sum nearly equal to the 
annual rent required for the purchase, and also for the yearly 
keep of the horse-power on a farm, but it is a constant weight 
that cannot be shaken off or shifted to other shoulders. In 
manufacturing operations and in locomotive travelling, steam- 
power has, from its superior economy, effectually supplanted 
animal power, but exce})t for the purpose of thrashing it has 
been found inapplicable for the tillage of land, and still more so 
lor the cartage of corn, hay, and manures. 
As therefore horses must be kept for these various purposes, it 
is surely of the utmost importance to understand and to adopt the 
best and most economical methods of managing them. 
The amount of horse-power required on an arable farm must 
or rather ought, to be regulated by the requirements of spring, 
turnip, and wheat sowing. Unless a sufficient number is kept to 
take advantage during these periods of the most suitable weather, 
so constantly varying in this country, great will be the loss 
experienced ; and on the other hand, if more are kept than the 
sowing season demands, a heavy expenditure is uselessly incurred. 
We take it therefore as our starting-point that the number of 
horses to be kept on a farm must be regulated by the require- 
ments of the sowing seasons. On this must hinge our whole 
* Mr. Middleton, in his Survey of Middlesex, estimated the whole land 
under tillage in England and Wales at 12,000,000 acres. Since his time a 
considerable quantity of down and pasture-land has no doubt been broken 
up; but in reckoning as upwards of 10 per cent, the land thus brought 
under the dominion of the plough, we are not underrating the march of 
improvement. It may be useful to add, that the value »f the agricultural 
produce raised on the above has been estimated at about 70,000,000, whilst 
that from pasture-land has been taken at about 60,000,000. — Author. 
VOL. IX. s 
