5»p^ On the fuperioriiy of Horfes to Oxen Aug. 



ber, this may perhaps fervc for making a comparative flatement 

 with his oxen ; keeping in remembrance, that as I have a clay 

 foil to manage, there were of courfe many days in the year 

 when my horfes could not work, as I never attempt to plough 

 it wet. On fuch foils, I believe oxen totally inadmiifible ; be- 

 caufe, from wet weather, they are ofren thrown late, and, in 

 that cafe, whenever the weather favours, fuch extra exertion is 

 necefTary as they are quire unequal to. 



As it is not altogether foreign from the fubje6l I have been 

 on, I (liall offer f )nie remarks on a paflage in your Magazine for 

 May laft, on ploughing with three horfes abrtail. In page 

 251. there is a very proper animadverfion on this prevailing 

 pradice in Annandale. I am quite fatistlcd, that, in ordinary 

 circnmftances, two good horfes are always fuiTicient \ but I am 

 nlfo fatisfied, in fome circumftances they are not. My farm is 

 of a very deep rich clay, and, I had reafon to think, had been 

 but (lightly ploughed for fome time before I got it : I therefore 

 conceived it would be of great confequence to give it a deep 

 fubftantial ploughing. Witli this view, in crofhng my fummer- 

 fallow, it was ploughed to the depth of ten inches, and in fome 

 places a foot. Although I liave a pair of very powerful horfes, 

 I found, that to take fo deep a furrov/ in heavy land, was quite 

 opprefling them -, and as *my fervant had a great averfion to a 

 driver, and no great opinion of the utility of a third horfe yoked 

 in the common way as a leader, he yoked three abreaft, and 

 drove them as readily as he did a pair. Saving the expence of a 

 driver is a material confulcration •, and he cannot be difpenfed 

 \vith, in the common way of yoking, where a third horfe be- 

 comes necefTary. I know not whether, in Annandale, where 

 three are ufed abreafl:, a driver is employed. Although it may 

 appear, at firfl: fight, quite a fimple bufinefs to have three horfes 

 abreafl driven by the man who holds the plough ; yet, upon 

 trial, it will not be found fo eafy. It requires both well- trained 

 horfes, and an able ploughman, to do it to purpofe. The horfes 

 will be found to pufh one another much more than in the com- 

 mon way, and confequently go over a great deal more ground, 

 which, with the deep furrow, in this cafe, is very feveie work 

 for the ploughman. 1 found alfo, that with fuch a furrow, they 

 could do at Jeafl a fourth more work than could be done by two, 

 and with more eafe to themfeUes. They ploughed an eight 

 Scotch acre field in feven days ; and the work, by excellent 

 judges, was allowed to be done in capital (lyle. I fufpetl it 

 would have required eight oxen, v.ith two ploughmen and two 

 drivers, to have performed the fame work. Tlie conclufion I 



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