DRAUGHT HORSES, &C. 241 
in summer, they are fed with vetches, from the time 
they are fit to cut, till they get too ripe; two single 
horse carts can at once draw enough for a night and a 
day’s consumption of twelve horses, who, in July, Mr. 
Pomeroy and I estimated to consume half an acre per 
week ; they are good and succulent for about a quarter 
of a year, from the middle of May to the middle of 
August; soon after which, on this early land, they 
wither and ripen the seed ; in this time, twelve horses 
will consume six or seven acres, besides their allow¬ 
ance of corn. 
Mr. Carpenter says, he kept, in the dry summer, 
1794, fourteen horses, besides other cattle, several 
months on about eight acres of vetches, besides cutting 
several loads for seed. 
He also says, horses will very well eat Swedish tur¬ 
nips, and that he knew an instance of four horses, kept 
through the spring seed time, the turnips being only 
washed, and given morning and evening; and it was 
found that half the allowance of corn usually given, was 
sufficient. The horses refused good clover when they 
had Swedish turnips before them. The man who took 
care of the horses, says this food is equal to carrots for 
them, as he has proved both ; they are proper to give 
from Christmas to May. I think it would be a great im¬ 
provement of them for horse food, if, after washing, 
they were cut by one of Hanford’s Leicestershire ma¬ 
chines, or by some other adapted for that purpose ; 
and mixed with a little corn, chaff, or cut hay. This 
plant is not unlikely to become a great resource in 
the keep of horses. 
Mr. Knight has again informed me, that he thinks 
carrots unfit for the staple food of working horses, as 
being too laxative to be given alone in quantity, and so 
stimulating to a horse’s stomach, that with a moderate 
Worcestershire.] r quantity 
