The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-08-20
STABLE ECONOMY.
The Importance of Keeping the FaFm
Horses in Good Condition.

The Importance of Keeping the Fafm
Horses in Good Condition.
We have spoken frequently of the abb
solute necessity of economy in the con-
duct of our business as farmers, not
necessarily because we are farmers but
because we are compelled as business
men to husband all of our resources to
make both ends meet and have enough
left over to aid US in the education of
our children, and in furnishing our
wives and families with such things be-
yond absolute necessities, as are con-
sidered luxuries but which form the
very cream of life's living. 1t has been
limited many times, moreover, that
economy meant more than any thing
else, the proper exercise of our intelli-
gence, the use of brains and the right
direction of our observing and re-
Elective faculties.
This may be done in every depart
ment of our business and in the stable
as elsewhere, and it is not on the
largest farms that we oftenest find that
lack of method which is so wasteful in
both time and material for they are
usually conducted by men who man.
age, and in the management oversee
It is on the smallest farms and amongst
men of lesser capacity that we find it,
the very men of all others who are the
least able to afford it..
Take the following as an example.
The writer is talking of keeping the
horses up and says:
Sup to the stable | mean, for that is
the only way to keep them up in flesh
and general condition where they are
obliged to work part of the time
Many small and medium-sized farms
have not enough work for a team to
do in summer to keep them going all
the time, perhaps not half the time,
taking out haying and harvesting. The
owners imagine that it is a stroke of
economy to turn the team out to field
on grass not at work. If wanted to
drive off to town, do day IS cultivating
or any other work the horses are
caught up full of grass and put into
the harness. Every man who has
handled a team knows the condition of
such work horses. They are ''soft,"
weak, easily winded, fit neither for
driving or working. Horses in such
condition certainly can not do half
work. If on grass they can be
worked but few hours in the day. The
rest of the time they must be picking
grass.
Now it is poor economy to pay man
full wages to do half work. You tell
the hired man to wait awhile in the
morning for the team to eat before
hitching, give them a good chance to
bait at noon and turn them out early at
night. If cultivating he will get over
no more than half the ground that he
would if he had hard fleshed stable fed
horses. And no matter how easy you
try to be on the horses that are so
caught up and worked they will
gaunt up and get out of condi-
ton before the season is over. A
horse can not be safely worked while
his stomach is full of grass. It is of
but little use to feed grain for a meal
or two. The bowels of the animal on
grass are in such a condition that grain
is of but little benefit. To be sure it is
quite a tax to keep a team up on a
small farm all the year round, but l
know from experience and observation
that it does not pay to let them out I'M
less it is for taste of grass to clean
them out once in a while. ''-COLn1Gaa'S
Rural World.