Horse Power and Manure

In the early 1900's, horses were still the main source of power on farms and ranches, used for riding and for pulling cars, wagons, and heavy farm equipment. Jack London owned about 50 horses and especially prized the Shires, a breed that originated in the "Shires" of England during medievel times; on average, Shires weigh one ton, can move a five-ton load, and despite their size are the gentlest of beasts. Rejecting commercial fertilizer, London had a separate building constructed to store manure from the Shires, which was later spread over fields to enrich the ranch's nutrient-depleted soil. Drawing on his love of horses, he included them prominently in his later novels and stories, and he developed a model farm through well-researched decisions and lavish spending, once paying more for one horse than the combined annual salaries of four of his workers. In 1913, he wrote his publisher that he had bought an imported English Shire stallion for $2500 and an imported Shire mare in foal for $750. Before it was used as a stable for Shire mares, the Sherry Barn, built in 1884, had been the former Kohler and Frohling Winery's sherry house, where wood stoves in the front corners provided heat for sherry production. The Manure Pit was constructed circa 1915, and an overhead trolley moved manure efficiently in buckets, while the Stallion Barn was completed about 1915 to house Shire stallions; the interiors of each barn included stalls, a tack room, and a hay loft.

Glen Ellen, California · United States