Majejly's Farm at Wind/or. 423»>. 



nW admit of being kept in condition like a horfe, artificially, by proportionate food to pro- 

 portionate labour. 



Thefe oxen are never allowed any corn, as it would prevent their fatting fo kindlv af- 

 terwards. Their food in fummeris only a few vetches by way ot bait, and the run of 

 coarfe meadows, or what is called leafows, being rough, woody pallures. In winter 

 they have nothing but cut food, confifting of two thirds hay and one third wheat llraw ; 

 and the quantity they ufe in 24 hours is about 24 pounds of hay and 12 of ftraw ; and 

 on the days of reft they range as they like in the draw-yards ; for it is to be obferved, 

 that they are not confined to hot ftables, but have open flieds, under which they eat their 

 cut provender, and are generally left to their choice to go in and out. Under this ma- 

 nagement, as four oxen generally plough an acre a day, and do other work in proportion 

 there can be no doubt but their advantage is very great over horfes, and the refult to the 

 public highly beneficial. 



The oxen which are brought on in {ucceffion, run the firfl fummer in the park, and in 

 tlic leafows and temporary llraw yards in the winter, by which temporar)' ftraw yards 1 

 would have it underftood that they are made in different places, fo that the manure which 

 they make may be as near the fpot where it is wanted as poflrble. 



The forty oxen which go off are fummercd in the beft pafture and finifhed with 

 tumeps the enfuing winter. The ufual way has been to draw the turneps, and to give 

 them either ftalled or in cribs placed in the yard, with plenty of ftraw to browfe and lie 

 upon ; but laft winter an experiment was tried which anfwered extremely well, and will 

 be agam repeated next winter ; this was penning the oxen by day on the turnep land in 

 the manner which Iheep are penned, with this only difference, that the tiirneps were 

 thrown up into cribs inftead of being left to be trodden into the ground ; and in the 

 nights they were driven into a yard with a temporary fhed, well littered with rufhes, fern, 

 and leaves, and turneps, and barley-ftraw given to them in cribs. They thrived very faft, 

 and every one of them made at leaft eight loads of good muck in the night-yard, befides 

 the benefit done in treading and dunging on the land in the day time, which was very 

 creat, the foil being very light. — The refiilt of the ox fyftem is, that charging the ox 

 for his agiftment the firft year, for the yalue of the grafs and turneps the laft year, and 

 putting what he has in three intermediate years as an equivalent for his labour after every 

 allowance for rifk, each ox will pay at leaft 20 per cent, profit. In what inftance does a 

 horfe produce fo much ? 



I do not allow that the ox can be ufed on all foils ; upon a very ftony foil he cannot ; 

 nor can the horfe in all places be wholly excluded from hufbandry ; but every occupier 

 ©f a large farm may at leaft ufe fome oxen to very great advantage. They are all 

 worked at Wlndfor in collars, as their ftep is found to be much more free than when 

 coupled together with yokes ; and they are found to do their work with much greater 

 eafe in collars than in yokes, which ought every where to be exploded. 



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