272 [Senate 



which our agricultural annals abound, from Boston in the north to 

 Baltimore at least, going south. These testify in innumerable cases 

 to their plowing five or six inches deep, an eighth of an acre, thorough- 

 ly well, at the rate of an acre in four hours. Making the most liberal 

 allowance, however, for the favorable circumstances under which the 

 work has been done at this rate, and it may still be safely assumed 

 that a yoke of oxen, well trained, will turn over more than an acre of 

 strong land in eight hours. 



All that we have contended for is more than confirmed by the fol- 

 lowing testimony taken from a very interesting letter from Governor 

 Hill, dated 7th December, 1843, on the use of oxen in the lumbering 

 business in Maine. He says — " My own experience in this matter is 

 quite recent, and of course limited. I have at this time cattle of my 

 own raising, which, having been taught to step quick, and having 

 worked in the same team with horses, will side by side travel as fast, 

 and plow as much in a day as the same number of horses. A pair of 

 these oxen will turn over with a plow that carries twelve inches of 

 the last year's corn or potatoe ground, or easy stubble land, from one 

 and a half to two acres in a day, working eight hours, four in the 

 forenoon and four in the afternoon. Oxen well fed with hay and a 

 portion of Indian corn or meal, will in the heat of summer stand it to 

 work daily from eight to ten hours." 



At the exhibition of the Maryland Agricultural Society in 1823, 

 {quorum pars fui,) in the view of hundreds of spectators, an ox team 

 started in competition with five horse-teams, and was the second in, 

 completing an equal quantity of ground, and would have been the 

 first if the horse team had cleared out the middle furrow ', but sup- 

 posing that when ready to start, the horse has a little the advantage 

 of foot, it is to be considered that for small jobs and short bouts his 

 competitor can be more quickly hitched up, and the work despatched 

 by the time the horse would be geared : — such cases as we have 

 stated abound in all the accounts of the proceedings of agricultural 

 societies. A writer in the Memoirs of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society, speaking to a community who neither could nor would be 

 deceived on a matter so well understood by, and so deeply interesting 

 to them, says — " The principal argument of the advocates for the 

 cultivation by horses in Maryland seems to be the superior speed of 

 the horse. Now this must proceed from an imperfect training of the 

 cattle. With us our cattle will plow an acre of ground much better, 

 and in as short a time, as a pair of horses would do it, unless they 

 can trot their horses in the plow ; so they will get in a ton of hay 

 in as short a time." Here we are well persuaded the sagacious writer 

 hits the nail on the head, when he suggests that the objection on the 

 score of speed must arise from an " imperfect training of the cattle.^^ 

 He must possess an imperfect knowledge of the difference between 

 the habits of the New-England and the Southern plowman who is 

 not prepared to admit that in nothing is that difference greater than 

 in their treatment of all their cattle, and more especially tho'r oxen. 

 In this very difference, in fact, is to be found the solution of the 



