WORKING-OXEN VS. HORSES. 115 



decrease in all the great staple products of the farms in our 

 county, especially of hay and grain. Less cattle mean less 

 manure, and less manure means less hay and corn. 



The very great decrease iji the number of working-oxen 

 now owned and kept in this county is worthy of special 

 consideration. In Montague there are but one-fifth as many 

 working-oxen as twenty-five jears, ago. In Wendell, some 

 fifty years ago, we remember an occasion when sixty pairs 

 of cattle, including, of course, many properly classed as 

 steers, were harnessed in a single. string to a sled, for "break- 

 ing out the roads ; " and these cattle were all owned and 

 kept in one school district in that town ; and it is fair to 

 assume that the number of working-cattle in the town of 

 Wendell fifty years ago went well up into the hundreds. 

 In 1875 only eighteen pairs of oxen were found in that 

 town : so throughout the countr}'- is there a growing decrease 

 and disuse of the ox. Why is this so? Our boys have 

 come to dislike the dull ox as a power on the farm : he is too 

 slow, too stupid, and too clumsy. Especially is this the case 

 in working modern farm-machinery. The mower, the ted- 

 der, the rake, and the fork are more readily, more rapidly, 

 and it is thought more economically, worked by the horse 

 than by the ox; and perhaps herein lies the great reason 

 why the horse is crowding the ox from the farm. 



The real question, however, lies back of this ; viz.. Is it 

 good economy for a small farmer, say one who cuts from ten 

 to fifteen acres of grass, to employ machinery for that pur- 

 pose ? It is all very fine to talk about drudgery on the farm, 

 about giving the farmer time and opportunity to cultivate his 

 higher faculties, with, the thermometer at a hundred in the 

 shade, by using labor-saving machinery. We have found a 

 sun-bath on such a day, in the hay-field, healthful, profitable, 

 and agreeable, and consider the question of the use of ma- 

 chinery largely as one of profit and loss. We suspect our 

 farmers are not keeping strict accounts with their machinery, 

 and would be surprised to be told that it costs them con- 

 siderably more to do some of their work by machmery than 

 in the old-fashioned way. 



Without wishing to disparage or condemn the use of ma- 

 chinery, we say without hesitation, if one must go, give us 

 back the ox, and take away the machines ; for in our view the 



