More Horses
The Oxford agriculturists have been concerning themselves with the prospects of the English horse. About fourteen yzars ago it seemed to be a disappearing fauna. The numbers of agricultural horses fell sharply from the eight hundred thousands to the five hundred thousands. Farmers gave up breeding and but for a few men of wealth who had a fancy for the Shire, this incomparable breed would have lost quality as well as numbers. Happily a reaction has begun. Interest and prices recover. There is always a double demand for the heavy horses—for haulage and for farm purposes ; and in spite of the taste for mechanisation among both hauliers and farmers there is good evidence that the superiority of the horse for certain classes of jobs is being permanently re-established. One must not generalise from comparatively few instances ; but I have seen horses ploughing on many farms in many districts ; and ploughing is just one of the operations for which the tractor is considered definitely superior to the horse. The fact is that the farmer finds that he cannot do without heavy horses ; and since he has them, he uses them even for jobs that the machine may do more quickly. Statistics collected for the excellent little Oxford leaflet The Farm Economist indicate that the horse's recovered popularity is not likely to
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