No. 85.1 



277 



drunk — drunker still they grow, until groaning, down they drop. 

 For a while they lie panting and looking wild ; at length they leap 

 as if Suddenly frightened, rush round and round again, grow drunk 

 and drop again. Leave them ; they will repeat the experiment, until 

 reeling, they will stop or stand. In a few hours you may lead them 

 around by their halters. Uncouple them from the pole, or yoke them 

 to your cart, and drive them where you please with safety." The 

 preceding method is recommended with confidence from personal 

 knowledge by Mr. William P. Hart, of Kentucky. 



There is no point in the comparison between oxen and horses which 

 more strongly illustrates the economy of ox-power than the difference 

 in the expense of gearing. 



For each horse employed on public roads, where it is in constant 

 yse, the harness costs, according to the best information, as has been 

 seen, twenty dollars ; being one hundred and twenty dollars for a 

 team of six, leaving the swingle or whiffle-trees, as they constitute a 

 part of the wagon, out of the question ; and this harness is not ex- 

 pected to last more than six years ; while for six oxen, the whole 

 gearing, consisting of three yokes and two chains, would not cost 

 more than twenty dollars, and would probably last twenty years. 



A singular method of accustoming young animals to draw is prac- 

 ticed in France; and, although it must be admitted that few nations 

 have been more the slaves of routine and old habits, or slower in 

 the progress of improvement in agricultural implements, yet the sys- 

 tem they pursue in this instance, as here illustrated, looks and reads 

 so plausibly as to appear worthy of a trial, and to bespeak confidence 

 in its efficacy. It is well known that nothing is more humbling to 

 the wildest and most idomitable animal than the sufferings of extreme 

 hunger ; and among the French, in the very act of satisfying its cra- 

 vings, they habituate young animals to the yoke and harness. For 

 this purpose they attach them to the manger by means of a cord 

 which runs through a ring, at the extremity of which a weight is at- 

 tached, as represented at A, in the annexed plate, so that the animal 



may, at pleasure, approach or recede from the manger. A collar is 

 put on the animal with two cords fixed to a bar or swingle-tree, to 

 which another cord is attached at B, which passes through the pulley 

 at C, and to which is suspended a weight as at D, to be increased or 

 diminished at pleasure. Things being thus arranged, fodder is put 

 in the rack. The animal, when pressed with hunger, approaches hi 

 food, in doing which he raises the weight, and keeps it suspended as 



