1870.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
331 
have; and the cost will be so little increased as 
not to be appreciable. It is not necessary to 
have a “$50 stock horse;” $500 will buy and 
land in Wisconsin a good thorough-bred stal¬ 
lion, that has proven a little too slow for racing. 
He can be put iu the team and made to earn his 
living (without abuse of course); and 40 mires 
at $5 would make him profitable. The cost of 
the service has nothing to do with the value of 
the get; I mentioned $50 as the usual price. 
If the same blood can be had for $5, all the 
better,—and it can be. 
Why is it that farmers almost universally 
suppose, when improved stock is spoken of in 
an agricultural paper, that reference is made to 
“ fancy stock ? ” There is no question, of course, 
that thorough-bred horses and their progeny 
are used for fancy purposes,—for races, for 
horse trots, and for swell driving—but what of 
that? They are so used because they have 
more speed, strength and endurance, can put 
forth tremendous exertion for a longer time, 
and have vastly greater pluck than cold-blooded 
horses have. These qualities are precisely 
what best fit them for the farmer’s use;—not to 
hitch up with the best harness for Sundays and 
holidays, but to work before the plow and to 
haul heavy loads. Their briskness and wiry- 
ness more than make up for their loss of size. 
Without knowing precisely the character of the 
farm horses used in Wisconsin, I assert without 
hesitation that a half-and-half cross between 
them and the thorough bred race-horse would 
commence hard work earlier in life, would go 
more miles in an hour, more hours in a day, 
more days in a year, and a good many more 
years in a life-time than the present stock; 
would be as easy to keep, and would haul as 
big loads and would .be much more valuable as 
breeding mares. So, if you please, we will not 
consider it an argument to talk about “ fancy 
horses for fancy men.” These papers are, as 
they profess to be, written “ for farmers,” and 
they are written by a farmer who believes that 
he knows what his brother farmers require, and 
is glad of ail opportunity of telling them. It 
is not expected nor desired that they shall be 
accepted without question or criticism, but I 
•would be glad to have them accepted in the 
spirit in which they are written, and to have 
my readers believe that in what I say I have no 
other motive than their profitable instruction; 
and that I am writing not from theory, but 
from considerable experience and observation 
of horses of thorough-bred and other stock. 
If my life depended on my going a very long 
distance with a heavy load in the shortest pos¬ 
sible time, I would select a pair of racing mares 
in preference to the best “ work” horses I ever 
saw. Of course for work, a cross between the 
two would probably be still better. 
It has been objected that race-horses are too 
fast for cultivating among rows of corn. Some 
are and some are not. It is not the fastest 
horses that walk the fastest, and there would be 
the same chance for finding slow walkers in a 
racing stable, as among farm teams,—save there 
would be fewer lame and stiff animals. 
Several correspondents have asked where they 
can buy thorough-bred stallions for moderate 
prices. There are several racing studs in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the country, where a number 
of colts are raised every year for the turf. A 
large proportion of these, when tried, prove too 
slow for racing, and although of the very choic¬ 
est blood, being unfit for the use for w'hich they 
were intended, they can be bought for the price 
of carriage and saddle-horses. These animals 
should, however, be selected with much care, as 
the absurd and pernicious custom of running 
very young horses is rapidly injuring the race, 
and much of the discarded stock is weedy, and 
totally unfit for farmers’ use. 
Another subscriber, who has been purchasing 
a very nice horse for pleasure driving, asks how 
such an animal should be fed and groomed.— 
There are all grades of care bestowed on such 
horses, from the most ordinary treatment, to that 
given by the owners of very valuable trotting 
stock, who keep a groom to each horse, and 
whose outfit of stable furniture costs a small for¬ 
tune for each stall. In Herbert’s Hints to Horse- 
keepers, there are two chapters, “ How to Feed 
a Horse,” and “ How to Stable and Groom a 
Horse,” which occupy thirty pages, and which 
are the most complete statements on the subjects 
that I know of. It is not possible to condense 
within our limited space anything more than 
the principles of the feeding and grooming. 
As a general rule, too much food is given, and 
too large a proportion of it is hay. Ten lbs. of 
hay and twelve lbs. of oats constitute a good day’s 
fodder for a working horse, whether the work 
be fast or slow. Herbert says, “ they should be 
fed with a lock of hay and half a pail of water 
the first tiling in the morning on opening the 
stables; and when the stables have been aired, 
cleaned, and littered, should have, after being 
thoroughly groomed, their other half pail of 
water, and, if they be not going out, four qts. of 
oats; and when they have eaten these, they may 
have about four or five lbs. of hay in their racks, 
and be left dark and quiet. If they be going 
out early, they should have six qts. of oats at 
their morning feed, and no hay. If they be 
standing in the stable, and not to be put to work 
until afternoon, tliej' should be again watered, 
and have four qts. more at noon; and when they 
return at night, should be cleaned, watered, fed 
with oats, and have the remainder of their hay 
in their racks at night. This will be found am¬ 
ply sufficient to keep horses in good working 
condition, when no unusual labor is expected 
of them, and neither extraordinary turns of 
speed nor feats of endurance. Half a bushel of 
nicely washed carrots, given, a few at a time, 
every week, will be found to improve the coat, 
to be particularly beneficial to the stomach and 
wind, and to be very grateful to the animal; 
and, in weather, and in places where they can 
easily be provided, a few handfuls of green clo¬ 
ver, fine meadow grass, or maize * * * , " r give 
a kindly alterative to the system, keep the bow¬ 
els moderately open, and please the appetite of 
the animal.” A mash of stewed bran and oats 
once a week is also recommended. Such a 
mash is excellent after severe exertion,—and in 
case of unusual fatigue, a quart of ale may be 
added. Nitre a*id all drugs should be avoided, 
and new corn should never be fed. Old corn 
may be used, but not more than two-thirds as 
much as of oats. Never feed within an hour of 
working time, and work slowly at first to allow 
the bowels to be fully evacuated. Broken-wind 
is caused by too sharp work when the stomach 
is distended by food or water; founder by being 
overfed while hot or exhausted; “Colic and 
acute inflammation of the bowels from being 
freely watered and subjected to drafts of cold 
air, showers of rain, or being injudiciously 
bathed or washed after sharp work, when their 
stomachs are empty, and themselves craving a 
good dressing and a warm mash.” 
The harder the work, the more .abundant and 
nutritious should be the feed ; hay should be di¬ 
minished, and oats increased to fourteen or six¬ 
teen qts., or as much as will be eaten. Water 
should never be given in a large quantity short¬ 
ly before work, norat all when hot or very tired. 
At other hours it should be supplied often and 
in abundance. 
Youatt recommends that, whenever possible, 
horses should be groomed in the open air, 
whenever the weather is not too severe. It not 
only keeps the mangers and the food more 
cleanly, but the fresh air has a valuable, in¬ 
vigorating effect. The curry-comb should be 
used very lightly, so as not to inflict any pain; 
and if the brush be a soft one, it will only re¬ 
quire a little heavier hand to make it sufficient¬ 
ly effective. Even a hair cloth is sufficient with 
very thin-skinned horses. The head should be 
dressed first, and it and the ears and the roots 
of the mane should be made thoroughly clean, 
before proceeding to the body and legs. Every 
part must be thoroughly cleansed of dust and 
dandruff; and the whole hide should be thor¬ 
oughly wisped all over with bunches of dry 
straw, until the coat is clean and glossy. 
Herbert thus closes his chapter on grooming 
—“ it requires care, dexterity, exactness and 
honest application of work. It cannot be 
procured without some expense, or relied on 
without the active and intelligent supervision of 
the master; but without it, no stables can be in 
order,—no horses healthy, happy or in condi¬ 
tion for doing the work for the performance of 
which they are kept.” 
It is not, of course, to be expected that farm¬ 
ers will keep their horses in anything like the 
condition of pleasure teams; but they should 
always have the ideal of good grooming before 
them, and approach it as nearly as their circum¬ 
stances and their means will allow. It will 
undoubtedly pay for any farmer to keep his 
team horses thoroughly clean from head to 
foot, having them well groomed twice a da) r ; 
but of course in a large majority of cases this 
could only be done at a great sacrifice in other 
respects, for, where but little labor is kept, 
other work is often of more imperative conse¬ 
quence. In bad weather, however, when other 
work is not pressing, the horses should receive 
extra attention, and especially when they come 
in from their work cold, wet and muddy, 
should they be made thoroughly dry and com¬ 
fortable before being fed and littered down. 
- — * ■ — 
Ogden Farm Papers—Ho. 9. 
Much trouble and disappointment has come 
from the deep plowing of last year’s cornfield, 
to which reference has been made in these pa¬ 
pers, and has obliged me to abandon soiling 
almost entirely for nearly the whole of July. If 
this field had been plowed only 5 or 6 inches 
deep, instead of 10, we would not only have had 
a much better crop of corn last year, but our 
broad stretch of oats for soiling would have 
been a good crop instead of a poor one, and the 
earliest sowed corn would have been ready to 
follow them closely, instead of hanging back 
for a couple of weeks, and only half growing at 
that. The oat crop amounted to very little, and 
the corn was so backward that if cutting from 
it had been commenced as early as intended, 
we would have run aground in a week. 
The clover, (20 acres), although a poor crop, 
in a measure helped us out by affording very 
fair pasturage for the cows to run upon. In one 
way and another we managed to squeeze along 
until the corn was large enough to be cut with 
