292 On the fupenorliy of Horfes to Oxen Aug. 



nrts and fclences, it appears to me not lefs applicable to agricul- 

 ture. Viewinc:r the matter in tb.is way, I have been a conftant read- 

 er of yf^ur ufefnl M?)^'.izine ever fince its firfi: publication. I am 

 greatly pleafed to hear of its incrcafing celebrity and fuccefs, and 

 am indeed fo much a friend to the undertaking, that I could 

 villi to fee it enlareed, even beyond the Appendix and Index, 

 promifed in the laft Number at the end of the year. This mud 

 necefTarily, as a matter of courfe, be attended with an increafe 

 of the pi ice of it; but, in an aj^e like the prefent, eager after 

 agricultural information, I mud fuppofe that the generality of 

 your readers would willingly accede to any price for which they 

 had value received \ and you appear to have abundance of valu- 

 able materials crowding on you for that purpofe. To old ex- 

 pert agriculturills, your work may perhaps be of lefs confe- 

 quence ; but as I am not of that defcription, and probably a 

 great proportion of your readers are not, I am ready to acknow- 

 ledge, that I have reaped confiderable information, and I hope 

 benefit, from it. To your very intelligent correfpondent, who 

 writes * Srriftures on Farm-Management near London, * 1 feel 

 peculiar obligation. PofrefTing a farm, though on a fmall fcale, 

 fimilar in many refpe6ls to that of his friend to whom he gives 

 advice, I have already begun a plan of improvement on his fyf- 

 tem, which I mean to follow up, bccaul'e 1 believe it to be really 

 fterling. If my abilities were equal to my inclination, I would 

 very willingly fend you my occafiunal contribution to your work ; 

 but I have to regret, that this is by no means the cafe ; how» 

 rver, 1 would fain iliow you, that I am at ieall not wanting in 

 the latter. 



The employment of horfes or oxen in farm culture, has 

 hi-try long a fubjed keenly contefted ; and in almolt every 

 Number of your Magazine, we have fomething on it. Were 

 we to attend to fpeculations, or laboured difcuirions, or even the 

 apparently more convincing evidence of derailed calculation on 

 this point, we would be much at a lofs ; but the almoft univer- 

 fal preference to horfes by the farmers of this country, is a pret- 

 ty conclufive argument in their favour. I mean not to enter 

 into any reafo.ning on this fubj(;£l, but to (how, not merely 

 what can be, or ought to be done by a pair of horfes, but what 

 has a£lually been performed on my own farm, and under my 

 own eye, in the courfe of laft year, by a pair of horfes. If I 

 am not much miftaken, it will rather tend to bear out our farm- 

 ers in their general preference to horfes ; while, at the fame 

 time, I fuppofe fome of them can produce a greater quantity of 

 work performed by the fame ftrength, and in the fame time. 

 As this fubject has ailumed the appearance of controverfy almoffc 

 more than any other, and produced rather pointed language 



from 



