More Farms Are Relying on Horses
更多美國農場用馬耕作
By Anne Raver

HARTLAND, Vermont – It was a perfect day for plowing, a little overcast with a cool breeze. You could hear the sound of the birds, the chink-chink-chink of the harness.
這是犁田的大好日子：有一些烏雲，涼風陣陣。你可以聽到鳥鳴，還有挽具的碰撞聲。

Stephen Leslie, an artist and former Benedictine monk, guided two Norwegian Fjords down the field. The plow, a 136-kilogram curving steel blade, cut through the soil and sent it curling over itself in dark waves. He stepped quickly, leaning back into the lines he kept looped around his shoulders so his hands were free to guide the plow.
藝術家萊斯里曾經是聖本篤修會的修士，這一天帶著兩匹挪威峽灣馬下田。他用的犁是彎曲的鋼片，重136公斤。它穿過泥土，使土壤如深色波浪般的不停捲曲。他迅速踏步，向後緊靠他繞在肩膀上的繩索，使兩手得以引導犁具。

“Stay haw, stay haw,” Mr. Leslie said in a low, calm voice, reminding the horses to bear right as they neared the end of the field. Full grown at 1.4 meters high and 430 kilograms, these animals can be dangerous if they are startled. But compared with Clydesdales or Percherons, which can weigh as much as 1,100 kilograms, they look like big, muscular ponies.
萊斯里以低沉冷靜的聲音說：「保持左轉，保持左轉。」他們即將走到田地的盡頭時，他提醒牠們向右轉。這些成年挪威峽灣馬身高140公分，重430公斤，如果受到驚嚇，可能相當危險。不過如與體重可達1100公斤的蘇格蘭踏雪馬或原產法國北部的佩爾什馬相比，牠們只像大而壯的小馬。

Farming with horses is a complicated dance in which timing is all. But Cassima, 19, and Tristan, 14, have been with Mr. Leslie for most of their lives (Fjords can live as long as three decades), so years of trust bind them.
用馬耕作是一種複雜的舞蹈，時間的拿捏是一切。19歲的卡西瑪與14歲的崔斯丹多數歲月與萊斯里共度（這種馬可活到30歲），長年培養的信任緊緊繫住雙方。

Mr. Leslie, 52, and his wife, Kerry Gawalt, 38, use a tractor to do heavy jobs here on Cedar Mountain Farm. But when it comes to working the land, they use four Norwegian Fjords.
在佛蒙特州哈特蘭的雪松山農場，52歲的萊斯里與38歲的妻子凱莉‧賈華特用一部拖拉機做重活，耕田則用四匹挪威峽灣馬。

Their farm is one of some 400,000 operations in North America that use draft horses in some capacity, estimates Lynn Miller, the editor of the Small Farmer’s Journal, in Sisters, Oregon, who has farmed with horses for more than 40 years.
奧勒岡州姊妹鎮「小農」雜誌主編米勒用馬匹耕作已經40多年。他估計北美洲約有40萬座農場用馬匹幹農活。萊斯里的農場是其中之一。

After World War II, when farmers traded in tens of millions of horses for tractors – “There was no place for the horses except the glue factory,” Mr. Miller said – the use of draft horses plummeted. By the 1970s, some of the breeds that had been the most popular were down to the thousands.
二次大戰結束後，農民以數千萬匹馬交換拖拉機（米勒說，除了在黏膠工廠，馬匹已無用武之地），導致專供拉曳的馬匹數量大減。到了1970年代，一些曾經最普遍的品種只剩下幾千匹。

But “since then, the number of work horses and draft mules has steadily climbed,” said Mr. Miller, who has written more than a dozen books on the subject. “People are attracted to the way of working with animals, of being back in touch with nature.”
米勒曾經寫過10幾本書談論這個主題。他表示，此後，勞役馬與拉曳騾的數量「穩定回升」。他說：「與牲口一起工作，同時再度與大自然接觸的生活方式吸引許多人。」

Mr. Leslie’s Fjords plow and disk the fields here, spread manure, cultivate vegetable rows, mow the hayfields and pull logs out of the forest in winter.
萊斯里的挪威峽灣馬負責犁田，散播肥料，耕作一排排的蔬菜，在乾草地刈草，冬天把原木拉出森林。

It is an idyllic life in many ways, but it isn’t for everyone.
從許多方面來說，這是一種田園生活，卻不適合每一個人。

Mr. Leslie , his wife and their 6-year-old daughter, Maeve, are part of the 60-member Cobb Hill co-housing community incorporated in 1998. It is based on a sustainable approach to living. Twenty-three houses cluster on a hill overlooking the farm, situated for the best solar gain. There are two Garn wood-burning furnaces that provide heat and hot water in winter; solar panels that heat the water in summer, when the sun is strong enough; compost toilets that require no water or septic fields; and shared equipment like lawn mowers.
1998年，成員60人的柯伯山公社成立，萊斯里夫婦與他們的6歲女兒梅芙是它的一分子。它以永續的生活方式為基礎。23戶房舍群集在一處俯瞰農場的山上，而且可以獲得最多的日照。他們共用兩部燒木頭的賈恩牌火爐，冬天可以為他們供應暖氣與熱水；夏天日照夠強時，太陽能板可以提供熱水。他們還有不需要水或化糞池的堆肥廁所，並共用刈草機等器械。

Mr. Leslie believes people today are longing for a connection to living things and it is why he thinks that farming with horses will have a real renaissance.
萊斯里認為，現代人渴望與活生生的動物產生關聯。因此他認為，用馬匹耕作必將大大復興。

“I think people are hungering for a kind of unplugged reality,” he said.
他說：「我認為許多人渴望過那種拔掉插頭，更接近自然的現實生活。」

He added: “It has a spiritual component – to what this is all about, what gives meaning to human life.”
他又說：「它具有一種精神元素，關乎這整件事。它為人的生命賦予意義。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/garden/farm-equipment-that-runs-on-oats.html

Slideshow：Still Hitching the Plow
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/05/16/garden/20130516-HORSEFARM.html

2013-05-28聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版右