l5o^» /*/; farm lahour^ \^c 293 



from fome of your correfpondents, I apprehend, that fuch fl ite- 

 ments of fa£l:s ^'\\\ ^o farther towards fettling this knotty p >int, 

 than any other m<ide of difcuflin^r it. lUit to come to p rticu- 

 lars. In \\\t firfl place, my horfes plouj^^hed one hundrtdand 

 eijiht Scotch acres, of ftroni: clay foil, with all the harrowin^rs 

 and rollings : tlu-y carted above a t'louf.uid carts (lingle-horfe 

 earts, the way they .^re always worked) of earth from one fide 

 of an eiy^ht acre field to tiie or}i< r : tht-y brought earth from 

 a diilance of two miles, to fill, about half way up, three hun- 

 dred yards of a drain, three feet deep, the fame width at top, 

 and a fpade wide at bottom : led out eighty carts of dung to an 

 adjoining field : brought home, thraihed out, and carried to 

 market, the produce of twenty-nine acres — a heavy crop : were 

 a week employed carting (lones for making up fences ; befides 

 bringing home the family coals, I fappofj equal to another week ; 

 and doing all the other fmaller jobs about a farm, not eafily enu- 

 merated, but which are well known to be many. All thefe 

 ploughinijs, harrowings, rollings, and cartings (except filling the 

 earth and dung into the carts), were performed by one man. 

 As 1 have mentioned the work my horfes performed, it may 

 be proper to f;iy how they were treated. They are always fully 

 nine hours in the yoke, when the feafon is far enough advanced 

 to admit of it — five in the morning, and four in the afternoon j 

 when they get three feeds of oats, or, what I have found far 

 preferable, oats morning and mid-day, and raw potatoes at 

 night — hay for fodder. During the (hort days, they have buc 

 one yoking of fix hours ; uhen they get two feeds of oats, 

 with draw for fodder. In fummer, they have cut grafs in 

 the houfe during the day, and are put out on good pafture dur- 

 ing the night. 1 believe being out all night makes them more 

 hardy, and is of benefit to their health \ but before turning 

 them out, they are allowed to cool in the ftable, and to 

 be quite filled with cut grafs. I have always found, that two 

 good horfes, well fed, atid their work properly timed, will per- 

 form as much as almoft any man is able for, and more than 

 molt of them will do. I ihould be glad to hear from fome of 

 your advocates for oxen, (and I would more particularly addrefs 

 myfelf to your correfpondent in your 7th Number, page 28 1), 

 what number of his oxen (as they appear to be of a fuperior 

 kind), and what number of fervanis it would require, to perform 

 the quantity of work ftated above. This might perhaps afford 

 fomething like the debtor and creditor ftatement, although not 

 precifely what the Conductor, in his note to that correfpond- 

 ent, mentions. If your correfpondent Mago receives from 

 Alfred an anfwer to his firll query, page 54. of your laft Num- 

 ber, 



