The cart-horses employed about towns are fed on oats, beans, bran, and hay. Meal seeds, barley, and corn-dusts, hay-seeds, and roots, are also in common use. In winter, one feed is generally boiled and given the last at night. If any be left, it is given the first in the morning. It usually consists of beans and turnips, or barley and beans, to which bran and hay, seed or barn chaff, are added. Straw is almost never used as fodder for these horses. Hay is given in unmeasured quantity, and it is seldom cut into chaff. In summer, cut grass is used instead of hay, without any alteration in the quantity of grain; but boiled food is abandoned as the grass comes in. Some give boiled food every Sunday, once a day in summer, and twice in winter. It is supposed to be less constipating than raw grain for the day of rest. Raw beans, with dry bran, form the manger food of a great many cart-horses during the winter. The last feed is boiled with turnips and hay seed, and the rack is filled with hay. Meal seeds are often given along with oats or beans, and sometimes alone.

The quantity of fodder is seldom limited. The horse eats as much as he pleases, or as much as his owner can afford. It will probably vary from 15 to 30 pounds in the twenty-four hours. The quantity of grain varies from 12 to 16 pounds. The oats and beans are seldom bruised.

When the work is regular, the horses are usually fed three times in the stable, and not at all in the yoke. When irregular, and having many stoppages, the carter generally takes out a small bundle of hay and a little grain along with the horse. The grain is given in a nose-bag, a little at a time and often, when the horse stands. The hay is carried in a sack, and the carter often gives a little from his hand as the horse travels. When stopping, the sack is thrown before him, or attached to the cart-shaft, and the horse helps himself.

Messrs. Wiggins Of London

Messrs. Wiggins Of London keep upward of 300 cart-horses, which' are nearly all of the largest size. The grain consists of oats, barley, beans, pease, and bran. In summer, oats are preferred to beans; and in spring, barley is supposed to be better than either. But the choice is determined by the price. It is all given by weight, and whichever kind of grain be used, no difference is made in the quantity. When beans are used, an extra allowance of bran is necessary to keep the bowels in order. Swedish turnips and carrots are given occasionally. The fodder consists of clover, or saintfoin hay, and straw.

The beans are bruised, the oats sometimes coarsely ground, and the barley germinated. The fodder is all cut into chaff. The bruising and cutting are performed by machinery, which is worked by a single horse. Two lads, one to feed the machine, and one to unbind and deliver the hay, cut a load in three hours. It does not appear that any of the food is boiled.

The daily quantity allowed to each horse varies a little with his size. The largest receive about 18 pounds of grain, 16 of hay, 4 of straw, and 2 of bran; in all, 40 pounds. For some of the horses, 33 or 36 pounds of this mixture is found sufficient. The whole is given as manger-food. There is no rack fodder.*

Messrs. Hanbury & Trueman, London

Messrs. Hanbury & Trueman, London, keep above 80 horses, all of large size. They are fed on oats, beans, hay, and straw. In summer, beans are denied. The oats and beans are bruised, the fodder all cut. The daily allowance to each horse consists of oats 14 pounds, beans 1, with 18 of fodder, in which there is one pound of straw to every eight of hay. The food is never cooked. Salt is given every week on Saturday night and Sunday morning, four ounces at a time. In this way it relaxes the bowels.†

Mr. John Brown Of Glasgow

The cart-horses are fed three times a day. They receive oats and a few beans in the morning before going to work, which, in summer, is at six o'clock, in winter at seven. They come in at nine and get another feed, also of oats and beans. They return to work at ten, and do not come home till six, often not so soon. The third feed consists of beans, barley, and hay-seed, all boiled together and given warm The fodder consists entirely of hay, except for a short time in summer, when cut grass is given. The fodder is not limited; each horse is permitted to consume as much as he pleases. Few in the twenty-four hours use more than sixteen pounds. In winter, a few Swedish turnips are added to the other boiled articles.

* Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 11. British Husbandry, vo., i., p 141. † Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 11.

These horses are in excellent condition all the year. They work from ten to twelve hours per day. I have known them out occasionally for fourteen. They are employed in carting goods to short distances. The draught is seldom more than 25 cwt. They receive neither fodder nor grain while in the yoke. Each driver has the stable management of his own horse. The whole are superintended by a foreman, who measures out the grain. The horses' legs and feet are washed and dried every night after work. The stables are visited every morning by a veterinary surgeon.

Messrs. J. & W. Harvey, Distillers, Near Glasgow

The cart-horses are fed on oats, beans, barley, hay-seed, hay, and cut grass. The grain is not bruised, and the fodder is not cut. In winter the last feed is boiled, and in summer grass renders boiling unnecessary.

The allowance per week to each horse is three bushels of oats and half a bushel of beans, besides the boiled food, which consists of barley, beans, and hay-seed. One bushel of each feeds ten horses. Few consume more than half a stone (7 lbs.) of hay per day, but the quantity of grain is uncommonly large. They are fed four times. They are employed chiefly on the road, travelling from 8 to 10 or 11 hours per day, at from 3½ to 4 miles an hour, with a draught of 30 to 35 cwt., cart included.