268 [Senate 



roads, which are often soft, and sometimes suddenly become so, the 

 form of his foot <and the shortness of his legs are disadvantages ; and, 

 on roads frozen, or turnpikes, the roughness of the surface in the 

 former case, and its hardness in both cases, are inconvenient to his 

 cloven foot. But where the distance to market is not great, where 

 ihe varying state of the roads and of the weather can be consulted, 

 and where the road service is less in proportion to the farm service, 

 the objection is almost deprived of its weight. 



In cases where it most applies, its weight is diminished by the 

 consideration that a much greater proportion of service on the farm 

 may be done by oxen than is now commonly done ; and that the ex- 

 pense of shoeing them is little different from that of keeping horses 

 shod. It is observable that when oxen are worked on the farm over 

 rough frozen ground, they suffer so much from the want of shoes, 

 however well fed they may be, that it is a proper subject for calcula- 

 tion whether true economy does not require for them that accommo- 

 dation, even on the farm, as well as for the horses. 



A more important calculation is, whether, in many situations, the 

 general saving by substituting the ox for the horse, would not balance 

 the expense of hiring a conveyance of the produce to market. In the 

 same scale with the hire is to be put the value of the grass and hay 

 consumed by the oxen ; and in the other scale, the value of the corn, 

 amounting to one-half of the crop, and of the grass and hay consumed 

 by the horses. Where the market is not distant, the value of the 

 corn saved would certainly pay for the carriage of the market portion 

 of the crop, and balance, moreover, any difference between the value 

 of the grass and hay consumed by oxen, and the value of the oxen 

 when slaughtered for beef. In all these calculations, it is doubtless 

 proper not to lose sight of the rule, that farmers ought to avoid pay- 

 ing others for doing what they can do for themselves. But the rule 

 has its exceptions, and the error, if it be committed, will not lie in 

 departing from the rule, but in not selecting aright the cases which 

 call for the departure. It may be remarked that the rule ought to be 

 more or less general, as there may or may not be at hand a market 

 by which every produce of labor is convertible into money. In the 

 old countries, this is much more the case than in new ; and in new, 

 much more the case near towns than at a distance from them. In 

 this, as in most other parts of our country, a change of circumstances 

 is taking place which renders every thing raised on a farm more con- 

 vertible into money than formerly ; and as the change proceeds, it 

 will be more and more a point for consideration how far the labor in 

 doing what might be bought, could earn more in another way than 

 the amount of the purchase. Still, it will always be prudent, for 

 reasons w^hich every experienced farmer will understand, to lean to 

 the side of doing rather than hiring or buying what may be wanted." 

 The next most serious charge against the ox, is constitutional slow- 

 ness of motion^ which as many suppose, no course of education can 

 overcome, but which may be set off in comparison with the greater 

 speed of the horse, as i5Csop illustrated the difference of the long run 

 between the pace of the ' tortoise and the hare ." — " The greater haste 



