Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-08-15
Farm Teams.

The treatment Of farm teams is a
matter of great consequence to the
farmer; for the same principle which
requires that tho driver of a steam
engine should keep every part of his
machine well oiled and in good adj
!justment, and that he should keep
his boiler we'll supplied with fuel
and with water should actuate the
farmer in keeping this most valua-
BILE and really expensive assistant
to his labors in efficient condition
by careful grooming, judicious feed
ing, and attentive oversight.
Very much Of the value and avail
ability of the horse depends on the
quality and quantity of his food, and
on the manner in which it is given
to him. Too much food at one
time, too little at another, food of
improper kinds or in bad state
of preparation, is the founda-
ton of one-half the ills that horse
flesh is heir to. There is no verse
economy than the stinting Of food,
or the administering Of bad food
because it is cheap. Also, there is
no more wasteful practice than the
giving of too rich and expensive
food. Neither is there any greater
source of loss in the keeping of farm
horses, than the neglect to which
they are Systematically subjected.
The horse, even in the rudest state,
is of somewhat delicate organ
ization. His powers are very great
greater than is generally sup
posed;-but in order to their devel-
opment and to their long endurance,
it is necessary that he be fed with
the greatest care and with an ever
watchful judgement. Probably the
capital invested in farm horses in
the United States would go twice
as far; that is, the animals would
last in useful condition twice as
long, if they were thoroughly we'll
fed and cared for.
At the National Horse Show at
Springfield, several years ago, Mr..
Lewis B. Brown, of New York, ex-
hibited four-in-hand team, which
trotted around the course in about
three minutes. The united ages of
the fonr amounted to more than one
hundred years, and even the oldest
Of them remained useful for long
time after that. Indeed, Mr.. Brown
told me that he did not consider it
of much Importance that a horse
should be less than twenty years
old. Yet, as we look over the farms
of even our best farming districts,
how few useful teams do we find
that are more than fourteen or tif-
teen years old. Deducting the
years of their colthood, we see that
the period of their possible useful
ness is reduced fully one-half by
careless and injudicious treatment,
and especially by stingy and indis-
Greet feeding. TO 60 over the whole
range of directions for feeding, from
the time when the mare is first got
with foal, until the foal is worn out
with years of service, would re-
quire more space than can here be
spared. Concerning horses,
the following directions from Her
bert's "Hints" will be found useful:
With regard to mere farm-horses,
it is, usually, the habit to feed them
entirely on hay, or cut straw, with
now and then a mash, giving them
little or no oats or corn. 1t is GER
tain, however, that this is a mistake.
That the value of the work which
the horse can do, and of the horse
himself, arising from his improved
condition and increased endurance,
will be materially raised, while the
actual cost of his keep will not be
very materially increased by the
diminution of the quantity of the
cheaper and less nutritious food
given to him, and the addition of a
smaller or larger portion of the
more nutritive grain, which fur
nishes stamina and strength in a
degree greatly in excess of its own
increased value, may be assumed as
facts.
working horses do not, of
course, require so much nutriment
of high quality, as those which
are called on to quick work, and
perform long distances; but, as a
rule, all animals which have to do
hard work, and much of it, must
necessarily be SO kept as to have
hard flesh; and they cannot be so
kept unless they are fed on hard
grain Warnings Hand- Book of