The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-10-09 00:00:00

HINT TO COT-HORSE BREEDERS

Errors detected by experience are allowed to•be equal
to demonstration; but this truism is . not admitted by
a vast majority of English farmers, who persevere in the
use of the heavy black .horse for agricultural purposes,
for which, solely, he is .by no means fitted, from the slow- •
pesa of his step, (independently of his weight,) unless
very highly fed. • As long, however, as the ponderous
'vehicles made use of in London and elsewhert, for the
:transmission 'of
,heavy goods, are persevered in, this
'equally ponderous animal may be necessary; but it is
certain that lighter horses, in lighter vehicles, would do
the business better, that is, more speedily, and at less
:cost. Notwithstanding the objections to him; the heavy
Mack horse pays well foi: Rearing; for, being always
aaleable at two years old, a certain profit is insured, as, ,
for•the first year, the expense of keeping him is trifling.
g on a 'large scale, and promising to be fit for the London
market, or the best conducted road waggons, he cons-'
bands a price that leaves a handsome surplus .to the)
reeder. The chief disiderata in the cart-horse are
'pabstance .and action. If possessed of the latter, his
shoulders and fore-quarters can scarcely be too coarse
and heavy ; for, drawing being An effort of the animal to
preserve himself from the tendency which his weight
gives him to the centre of gravity when he inclines for-
ward, so the more weighty he is before, and the nearer
be approximates this centre, the more advantageously
will he apply his powers. Notwitstanding this, we are
no advocates 'of heavy horses • for farmer? work, Much
less on the road. The 'lighter horse gets over in eight
hours what would take the heavy one ten; and the
great improvement in the present mode of culture and
the implements used for agricultural purpoies do not re-
quire more weight and strength than what the Suffolk,
Clydesdale, Cleveland-bay, and other lighter breeds, are
masters of. Besides, there are periods of the year when
dispatch of business is of great moment to the farmer,
which he cannot command in those mountains of horse-
flesh which we see labouring in most of the finest dis.
tricts in England, tiring themselves by their own weight.
Travellers on the continent; occupying land in England,
Should early in their eye the form and action of- the
horses which draw. the public carriages, particularly those
bred iii
.Picardy, in France. The prevailing colour is
iron-roan, and their nature appears to sympathise with
that colour; for, speaking figuratively, they are as hard
as iron itself. It is not unusual to find four or five of
'them drawing those cumbrous diligences, weighing per-
haps six or seven tons, a twenty-mile stage at the rate of
six'miles an hour, preserving up their condition to the
highest pitch ; and this with hay and corn very -inferior
in quality to that grown in England.
lo keep up the condition of the English black cart-
horse requires him to consume nearly as much as his la-,
hour is worth ; and unless he lives well he is only half
alive, as his sluggish action denotes. In fact, his chief
fault lies in his having too great a body, and too little
spirit; consequently he exhausts himself in the mere act
of carrying that body. The nimbleness of the smaller
kinds of cart-horses to which we have alluded is owing to
theirmoderate size; add their immense powers in lifting
weight (with the Suffolk punch and Clydesdale breeds in
particular,) to the same cause, combined with the low
position of the shoulder, which occasions weight to be
acted upon in a just and horizontal direction, The Welsh
cart-horses, especially those in use in the counties of
Denbigh, Merioneth, and Montgomery, are eminently
adapted to all agricultural purposes, combining much
strength with a great share of activity; and the general
criteria of wide breast, with low shoulders, good carcass,
and small head, indicate their being good workers, with
'hardihood of constitution. Their -height is about fifteen
hands two inches, and .the colour black or brown.—
Apperley.