ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FARM HORSES. 
173 
expected to perform their work freely through the autumnal wheat 
sowing ? 
Another advantage arising from keeping horses in good con- 
dition is, that two horses well 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 
competition 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 or 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 I 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- con tractors, 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 
horses, which indeed was almost unlimited, averaging three 
bushels of oats and half a bushel of beans each horse per week, 
and the best hay ad libitum. I asked him if he was quite sure 
that he could not reduce the amount of corn with advantage, even 
if he worked the horses more moderately in consequence : he 
rejoined, that he had tried this plan, though not latterly, and was 
convinced that the system he adopted was the cheapest in the end; 
his horses worked hard, and for twelve hours in a summer’s day, 
and it was only by having as much corn as they chose to eat that 
they could do this. Now, this is important evidence in favour of 
liberal feeding; for it is not the practice of one individual only, but 
of hundreds, who are obliged to study economy to the utmost in 
their arrangements. How strong is the contrast between the 
strength of such horses and that of many farmers, whose teams of 
four horses in a plough are often to be seen on ordinary or even 
