No. 85. j ' 265 



Hence it is seen that no reasoning is necessary to recommend the 

 ox to general use in all that portion of America, and this evidence 

 has been adduced to prevail upon southern readers to reflect on the 

 subject, by showing, what many of them do not know, that already, 

 in many of our States where the folks are nice judges of economical 

 and labor-saving machines, animate and inanimate, oxen are actually 

 substituted, and horses altogether banished for all farming purposes, 

 and that their speed on long journeys, is quite equal to that of horses. 

 On the point of speed we shall speak again and conclusively, when 

 we shall have dismissed the one in hand, to wit ; — capacity to hear 

 heat. 



It was for a long time believed that the ox was a native of Europe, 

 and that in the Aurock, running wild in the forests of Poland, his 

 original type was to be found ; but Cuvier's researches in compara- 

 tive anatomy have established the belief that the cow is a native of 

 Southern Asia, and thence may be deduced an argument that there 

 is nothing in the natural constitution of the ox which forbids his 

 manifesting his entire capabilities in southern climates. If there 

 were, how is it that in South America he reaches his highest develop- 

 ments of size and power 1 As one of the commissioners to South 

 America, Chancellor Bland, in a report which Mr. Adams pronounced 

 to be one of the ablest papers ever presented to the government, thus 

 describes the ox-carts employed, and the wonderful powers of endu- 

 rance of this patient animal in crossing the pampas of Buenos Ayres. 

 It speaks conclusively to both the objections — want of speed and of 

 power to bear heat. 



" The Tucuman and Mendoza carts, at a little distance, looked 

 like thatched cabins slowly moving over the plain — the whole ma- 

 chine is destitute of a nail or a bit of iron j its great coarse wheels 

 are not less than eight feet in diameter ; six oxen, in general noble 

 strong animals, move it ; the two front pair have a great length of 

 cord by which they draw; and the load of the cart, which, on an 

 average, is not less than four thousand weight, is pretty nearly bal- 

 anced on the axletree ; the body of the cart is either covered with 

 raw hide or thatch, made of reeds or straw ; and with a collection 

 of brushwood, as fuel, tied on the top, and brought from the west- 

 ward of the pampas; these carts are seen crossing the plains in cara- 

 vans of from thirty to forty together. On the journey the oxen are 

 unyoked occasionally through the day and night, and permitted to 

 seek their food round about. Thus, without any other provision than 

 what is necessary for himself, the carrier pursues his way over a 

 waste for thirty days or six weeks passage. From Buenos Ayres to 

 Mendoza the distance is nine hundred miles, and the journey is per- 

 formed in about thirty days." 



In some parts of England they formerly had ox races, and it is said 

 that some years ago an ox ran four miles, over the°course at Lewes, 

 for one hundred guineas, at the rate of fifteen miles the hour. 



We are told that in India bullocks are used for the saddle and 

 coach, and that there traveling oxen are curried, clothed and attend- 



