1803. Letter f rem Lcrd SomervUL. ^j 



the juftice to believe, that I advance nothing without proof, and 

 that the bell recommendation of thefe my ideas to your notice, 

 is an honelt defire to ferve the common caufe, and an inceflant 

 attention and pra(flice for nineteen years pa(t. The ufe of oxen, 

 even under many impediments, has been perfevered in for ages 

 part, and will continue in every country where a breed is found 

 active in themfelvcs, and of a form and fize well adapted to 

 labour ; but now that oxen fit for grazing are hardly to be 

 found, this becomes every day a queftion of greater importance, 

 tlie fupply of our navy particularly confidered. We mud not 

 conceal Irom-ourfclves, that half grown, and therefore half fat 

 animals will not take fait welt ^ nor fliould we forget, that our 

 feamen muft have fait beef, and good in quality too, as well as 

 fait pork; and, on this account alone, labour, even to the amount 

 of what thefe animals confume, is valuable, becaufe experienced 

 men know that the growth of a working ox is greater the laft 

 year of his work, namely, from five to fix in cattle of moderate 

 fize, and from fix to feven in larger ones, than in any other 

 period of their exiftence. We mull take into confideration alfo, 

 that they are fubje6l to few cafualties, and that they confume 

 little if any corn at all; which circumftance, by the way, puts 

 almoft out of the quelUon any fair competition between them 

 and horfes, even if the fize and condition of fiefh were nearly 

 the fame. Every man, who travels poll, knows the difference 

 between the fame horfe kept at grafs, or that well kept on hard 

 meat : and the cafe exadlly applies. 



On thefe grounds, it is abfolutely neceflary that your readers 

 ihould be undeceived as to the comparative powers of the horfe 

 and the ox ; the difference between which, even under circum- 

 llances adverfe to the latter, will be lefs than they will readily con- 

 je£ture. Two inftances in point have occurred within thefe two 

 months pad. My authority for the firfl I give ; of the fecond I 

 was an eye-winefs. At the laft meeting of the Dublin Society, 

 there were many ploughs entered for the prizes given ; and, to 

 the furprife of every one, the oxen beat the horfes in fpeed. They 

 were worked in pairs only, without drivers. Thefe were not oxen 

 felecled from the mofl elleemcd breeds for labour, but the cxen 

 of that country. Many of the ploughmen who contended for 

 thefe prizes, were from the Lothians and Tweedfidc- This I 

 learned from Mr Rennell, whofe knowledge and accuracy in mat- 

 ters of this fort, thofe who know him will vouch for. 



At a meeting held the end of May laft, at Barnham Wyck iij 

 Effcx, for three prizes given, more than twenty ploughs Itarted, 

 three of which were worked by pairs of oxen each, without driv- 

 ers. The oxen were bred on the eftate, and of a fort which are 

 deemed by no means well adapted to labour. The horfe plough^ 



were 



