38 
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FARM HORSES. 
“ Prize Essay,” which we shall translate into our pages likewise 
in extenso ; the subject being one that, in the concise form in which 
it is compulsorily treated, will hardly admit of abridgment, much 
less of curtailment : nor will our readers, we feel quite sure, find 
fault with us for presenting them with papers of the class before us 
in their uninutilated and unaltered form, whenever they may turn 
out, as these two have done, so creditable to the members of the 
veterinary profession. — E d. Vet. 
The great importance of the subject of this Essay cannot for a 
moment be disputed. The vast amount of capital invested in farm- 
horses is nearly equal to the annual rent of the land cultivated 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 ap- 
pear a rough method of making our estimate, I believe it to be not 
very far from the truth. These circumstances are sufficient to de- 
monstrate the national importance of our subject ; whilst its in- 
dividual 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 except for the purpose of thrashing it 
has been found inapplicable for the tillage of land, and still more so 
for 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 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 ex- 
* 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 of the agricultural produce raised on 
the above has been estimated at about 70,000,000, whilst that from pasture- 
land has been taken about 60,000,000. — Author. 
