1879 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
299 
English Cart Horses. 
The cart is an old and firmly established farm 
vehicle in England, and also in other European 
countries. More work is done with it than with 
the wagon, upon the road, as well as in the field; 
(to draw hay, and manure, and carry in the harvest, 
and covered with limestone, which in many places 
rises into considerable hills of the most picturesque 
form. It contains the magnificent Chatsworth, the 
seat of the Duke of Devonshire ; the ruined castle 
of Castleton, made famous by Sir Walter Scott in 
his “Peveril of the Peak,” and the great cavern 
which runs for miles under the mountains. Be¬ 
rccommend them ; and the few enterprising Amer¬ 
ican farmers on whose farms they have been in use 
for years, could not be induced to discard them. 
It is true that very heavy horses are needed to 
move them, but a pair of such horses will be found 
as active in a wagon as a lighter team, and able to 
move twice as much. It is safe to estimate that 
the farm cart is in constant requisition. This gen¬ 
eral use of the cart has given rise to, and kept in 
use, a breed of horses adapted for the work. The 
Cart-horse of England; the Flemish draft horse 
and the Norman horse, all serve for this special use 
in their different countries. In England, cart horses 
are in such general demand, and local customs and 
habits are so distinctly marked, that we can not 
characterize any one breed as the cart-horse, there 
being many kinds, all of which, while they possess 
a generic likeness, have each their peculiar and 
specific differences. Thus, there is the Clydes- 
dale-horse ; the Norfolk-horse, the “ Shire,” or 
Yorkshire-horse ; the Derbyshire-horse and others, 
all of which are specially “cart” horses, and to 
distinguish which of these, or how many of them 
can be considered as “ an English cart-horse,” puz¬ 
zles even the adepts in England themselves. Just 
at present, as every valuable race of domestic ani¬ 
mals is considered worthy of a stud book or Herd 
record, so the English Cart-horse is honored in this 
way, and an “ English Cart-horse Society,” with a 
proposed stud book, has been organized. This is, 
however, the beginning of a serious trouble, for no 
one seems to know what should be admitted or 
what rejected, and the result may be, that by and 
by, each different race of cart-horse, localized by 
close breeding and confinement to a narrowly 
bounded district, may have its society of breeders, 
and its stud book. In this case it is probable that 
the race, of which we here give an illustration, 
which is the Derbyshire Cart-horse, may become the 
one which shall receive the greatest attention. 
Derbyshire is a noted county in England; being 
rough and rugged as to surface, fertile as to soil, 
sides, it contains the first cheese factory ever estab¬ 
lished in England, and is an excellent dairy coun¬ 
try. The roads are hilly and rough, and are excel¬ 
lently matched by the rough and rugged cart-horses 
which traverse them. Our illustration, for which 
we are indebted to the London “ Agricultural Ga¬ 
zette,” was taken originally from a catalogue of 89 
Derbyshire cart-horses, which were sold recently at 
Alfreton, Derbyshire, for Mr. John Nix, of Out- 
seats stud farm. Mr. Nix has bred this class of 
horses for more than 50 years, adhering to it with 
steadiness and perseverance. His stock, he states 
in his description, to be “ the old-fashioned sort, 
possessing weight and power, with great bone and 
abundance of hair, strong firm feet, and the best 
action.” The stallion, “Four Oaks,” is a 2-year- 
old colt, 17 hands high, and a rapid walker; the 
mare, “ Duchess,” is 4 years old, very wide across 
the loin, short in the leg, gray in color, and, as may 
be seen, has great substance. She is an excellent 
worker, and has taken the first prize as a yearling, 
and the second prize as a 2-year-old in the two ex¬ 
hibitions in which she has been shown. 
The cart-horse, proper, has no place in our agri¬ 
culture, yet it may well be questioned if we do not 
miss something by neglecting both the horse suita¬ 
ble to the vehicle and the cart as well. The narrow 
tired wagon in general use, with its double team, 
carries no greater load than an English farm cart 
with its one broad-footed, big-boned, wide-bodied 
heavy cart-horse, able to move a ton in a broad¬ 
wheeled cart over a plowed, field. The usefulness 
of the carts ; the ease with which they can be 
moved, turned, tipped, and unloaded, and their 
convenience in many other respects, have much to 
two heavy horses and carts, with three men, will 
do as much work, or more, thau can be done by 
four light horses, with two wagons and three men. 
Harvesting Buckwheat. 
Buckwheat being easily grown, succeeding on 
poorly prepared soil, giving a quick return, and 
generally yielding a remunerative harvest, is a fa¬ 
vorite crop with inexperienced farmers. Still it re¬ 
quires peculiar treatment in the harvesting, and 
those who are not acquainted with it are apt to 
make mistakes. It requires cutting before it is ful¬ 
ly matured ; and its habit of throwing out blossoms 
at the top until killed by frost, is apt to mislead. 
When frost is expected, the crop should be cut, and 
many immature grains will become perfect in the 
few days during which it is drying in the field. 
■Whenever the lower branches are well loaded with 
ripe grains, it may be cut; this should be done 
with the cradle, and while the stalks are damp with 
dew or moist after a shower. The grains are loose¬ 
ly attached to their stalks, and are easily shaken 
off in the cutting or raking, unless these are care¬ 
fully done. After the swaths have lain for a few 
days for the grains to ripen, the buckwheat is raked 
up into buuches and these are set up in gavels or 
loose stooks, without being bound ; the tops being 
gathered together as much as possible. In this 
condition the crop remains until it is thrashed. As 
it heats very rapidly it should never be put into a 
stack, nor mowed away in a bam, as has been 
sometimes done by inexperienced farmers. When 
the buckwheat is sufficiently cured and dry, and 
the unripe grains have matured, it may be thrashed 
