Management of Farm-Horses. 
I have before observed that the number of horses kept on a 
farm must be regulated by the requirements of the seed seasons. 
If eight or ten horses are enough at these periods, they are surely 
enough for the other portions of the year ; it is, of course, an 
object to take every advantage of fine weather to make both men 
and horses move nimbly, working at this period of the year both 
early and late. To accomplish these desirable purposes it is 
essential that the men should be ivell paid and the horses well 
fed; an extra allowance in the wages of the former for his over- 
time will be money exceedingly well laid out, and not only is it 
essential that the horses should have an additional allowance of 
corn during this period, but their condition should be such that 
they be capable of undergoing extra exertion without injury or 
fatigue. If they are half-starved throughout the winter they can 
hardly be expected to bustle through the barley and turnip sowing 
as they ought ; and if grass is their only diet through the summer, 
how can they be expected to perform their work freely through 
the autumnal wheat sowinsf ? 
Another advantage arising from keeping horses in good con- 
dition is, that two horses loell fed will do the labour of three 
horses badly kept, so that two in a plough will be sufficient during 
the busy seasons. At a period like the present, when British 
agriculture has so many difficulties to encounter and a foreign com- 
petition to meet, it is of the utmost importance to ascertain and 
to adopt the most economical practices ; but not to be drawn into 
error by misplaced ov false economy, nor to be wedded to customs 
whose antiquity is their only merit. If we seek for illustrations 
in the human subject for the desirableness of liberal feeding we 
have not far to go for abundant illustrations. What class of men 
can do more work in a given time, or do it more economically, 
than the navigators on our railways, and no class of men live on 
more nutritious food? The analogy obtains likewise amongst 
railway horses with equal force. A few months since the writer 
was travelling on a newly opened railway in the same carriage 
with one of the contractors that had been engaged in its com- 
pletion. He was one of the order of sub-contractors, whose profits 
can only be obtained by adopting every mechanical contrivance 
calculated to save labour, and, in fact, by getting both manual and 
horse labour effected at as low a rate as possible. I entered into 
conversation with my companion by remarking that he must have 
felt severely the high price of oats and beans which ruled through- 
out the first six months of 1847, and I asked him if he reduced 
the allowance of corn for his horses in consequence; he replied 
that he had been sorely punished by this extravagant price, which 
was one-third higher than it was when he took his contract, but 
notwithstanding this he gave the same amount of food to his 
VOL. IX. T 
