80 N. H. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in countries bordering on each other, shows that there is 

 room for much difference of opinion on this question, among 

 intelligent farmers. It would be impracticable, in the course 

 of this address, to describe the different kinds of gear em- 

 ployed on the continent of Europe, (for in England the ox 

 is not much used for farm labor,) and difficult to make the 

 descriptions intelligible without drawings. I may state, 

 however, that the ox is always driven with the rein, which 

 is sometimes a rope simply tied around the roots of the 

 Iiorns, sometimes provided with a head stall like a com- 

 mon halter, and sometimes made to act on the septum of 

 the nose by a forceps-like apparatus, and the animal obeys 

 the rein almost as readily as the horse, and thus much 

 time is saved in turning corners and the general guiding of 

 the team, to say nothing of sparing the lungs of the driver. 

 He is harnessed singly or in pairs ; with horses, cows, mules 

 or asses ; with yokes resembling our own, or sometimes 

 simply a straight bar, and free, or more or less closely at- 

 tached to the horns, with collars and hames, or single 

 yokes and bows instead, and finally so as to draw by the 

 forehead, which method, I am inclined to believe, prefera- 

 ble to all others. In this case, the instrument of draught 

 is a flattish bow, twenty inches or two feet in length, 

 slightly curved, and about five inches wide at the centre, 

 and three at the ends. The concave side of the bow is 

 well padded and applied to the forehead at the base of the 

 horns, to which it is secured by straps ; to each extremity 

 of the bow is attached a rope trace, and if a single ox is 

 used, he works in thills, if two, the wagon pole is sup- 

 ported by light chains passing from the end of it to near 

 the middle of the bow. There is usually no breeching ex- 

 cept when the collar and hames are employed, but reliance 

 is placed on locking chains or shoes, or more usually on 

 friction brakes worked by a crank and screw for checking 

 the wagon in going down hill. In New England, breech- 

 ing would, of course, be required in winter. 



