Scant feeding of man or horse is small profit and sure loss
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
HORSE IS SMALL PROFIT AND
SURE LOSS.
WHAT is saved out of the food of
cattle is a dead loss, for a horse can't
work if he is not fed. If an animal won't
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68 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
pay for keeping he won't pay for starving.
Even the land yields little if it is not nour-
ished, and it is just the same with the poor
beast. You might as well try to run a steam-
engine without coals, or drive a water-mill
without water, as work a horse without put-
tine corn into him. Thomas Tusser, who
wrote a book upon "Husbandry" in the
olden time, said,
" Who starveth his cattle, and weareth them out
By carting and ploughing, his gain I much doubt ;
But he that in labor doth use them aright
Has gain to his comfort, and cattle in plight."
Poor dumb animals cannot speak for them-
selves, and therefore every one who has his
speech should plead for them. To keep
them short of victuals is a crying shame.
The one in our picture seems to be thoroughly
broken in : look at his knees ! His owner
ought to be flogged at the cart tail. I hate
cruelty, and above all things the cruelty
which starves the laboring beast.
A right good man is good to all.
And stints not table, rack, or stall ;
Not only cares for horse and hog,
But kindly thinks of cat and dog.
DULY FEED MAN AND STEED. 69
Is not a man better than a beast ? Then,
depend upon it, what is good for the
ploughing horse is good for the ploughing
boy : a belly full of plain food is a wonder-
ful help to a laboring man. A starving
workman is a dear servant. If you don't
pay your men, they pay themselves, or else
they shirk their work. He who labors well
should be fed well, especially a ploughman.
" Let such have enow
That follow the plough."
There would be no bread if it were not for
the ploughman : would you starve the man
who is the very bottom and beginning of
everything ? John never brags, but he thinks
well of his calling, and thinks well of those
who pay well : as for those who grind the
faces of the poor, the more John thinks of
them the less he thinks of them. A man
may live upon little, but Farmer Gripper
thinks we can live upon nothing, which is a
horse of another color. I can't make out
why the land cannot afford to keep those
who work on it, for it used to do so. Tom
Tusser wrote three hundred years ago,
70 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
" Good ploughmen look weekly, of custom and right,
For roast meat on Sundays, and Thursdays at night.
Thus doing and keeping such custom and guise,
They call thee good huswife, they love thee likewise."
This is what he writes to the farmer's wife
about the ploughmen who hved at the farm
house, but he has a bit to say for the other
fellows and their privileges. About the
harvest supper he says,
" In harvest time, harvest folk, servants, and all.
Should make all together good cheer in the hall."
I wish they would, but then they are so apt
to drink. Could we not have a feast with-
out the beer and the headaches ? This is
old Tom's writing about the harvest supper,
and so on, —
" For all this good feasting, yet art thou not loose.
Till ploughman thou givest his harvest home goose.
Though goose go in stubble, I pass not for that,
Let Giles have a goose, be she lean, be she fat."
I fancy I see old Gripper giving Giles a
goose : he would think Giles a green goose
if he were to hint at it. Gripper is a close
shaver ; where he grazes no goose could
pick up a living after him. He does not
DULY FEED MAN AND STEED. 71
know what his lean laborers say of him,
but he might guess, for a hungry man is an
angry man, and an empty belly makes no
compliments. As for lazy fellows who will
eat till they sweat and work till they freeze,
I don't mind what short commons they get ;
but a real hard-working man ought to be
able to get for a day's work enough to keep
himself and family from hunger. If this
cannot be done, something is wrong some-
where, as the man said when he sat down
on a setting of eggs. I am not going to
blame the farmers, or the landlords, or the
Parliament men, or anybody ; but the land
is good, and yields plenty for man and
beast, and neither horse nor man should be
starved.
There is no gain in being niggardly to
your cattle. I have known men buy old
screws of horses and feed them badly, and
yet pay more in the long run for ploughing
than the owner of a good team who gave
out a fair allowance. The poor things can't
work if they don't eat. As I said before, I
speak up for the horses because they can't
speak for themselves. All they ca7i say,
however, goes to prove what I have written ;
72 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
ask them if they can plough well when they
get bad corn, and little of it, and they an-
swer with a neigh.
As for the men, I wish they were, all round,
a more deserving set, but I am obliged to
own that a many are better at grubbing than
ploughing. I would say to them, " Do
good work, and then ask for good wages."
I am afraid that many are not worth more
than they get. Our old master used to say
to Crawley Jones —
" You feed so fast, and walk so very slow —
Eat with your legs, and with your grinders go."
But then, if Jones was a slow man, he
certainly had slow pay. He did not see the
fun of working to the tune of twenty shill-
ings when he had only ten. If he had done
more, master would have given him more,
but Jones couldn't see that, and so he
mouched about, doing next to nothing, and
got next to nothing for it. He very seldom
got a bit of meat, and there was no bone or
muscle in the man. He seemed to be fed
on turnip-tops, and was as dull as a dor-
mouse in winter time, and unless you had
emptied a skip of bees over him you couldn't
DULY FEED MAN AND STEED. 73
have woke him up. They say that Johnny
Raw is a stupid ; he would not be half so
stupid if he had more raw to put in his pot.
Though lubbers might loiter with belly too full,
We're not in that case, but our belts we must pull;
Could we manage to get a little more meat,
We could do twice as much, and think it no feat.
They call a ploughman Chaw-bacon, do
they ? Wouldn't he like a bit more bacon
to chaw? Hundreds and thousands of
hard-working men down in the shires
hardly get enough fat to grease the wheels
of life, and the more's the pity. As to the
poor women and children, it is often short-
cake with them : bread, and pull it, and
little of that.
One thing, however, is as plain as a pike-
staff; the laborer cannot afford to keep a
public house going while he has so little for
his own private house. He has not a penny
to spare, I'm sure, but had need to take all
home to the missus that he can make by
hook or by crook. Miss Hannah More
wrote two verses which every ploughman
should read, and mark, and learn.
74 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
** We say the times are grevious hard,
And hard they are, 'tis true !
But, drinkers, to your wives and babes
They're harder made by you.
" The drunkard's tax is self-imposed.
Like every other sin ;
The taxes altogether cost
Not half so much as gin."
Well, if after all our being sober and
thrifty, we cannot get along without pinch-
ing, let us still be patient and contented.
We have more blessings than we can count
even now. If masters happen to be close-
fisted, God is open-handed, and if the out-
ward food be scant, the bread of heaven is
plentiful. Cheer up, brother ploughman, it's
better on before. There is a city where " the
very streets are paved with gold exceeding
clear and fine." This should make us feel
like singing all the time, and help us to
follow the advice of old Thomas —
«* At bed, and at board, whatsoever befall,
Whatever God sendeth, be merry withal."