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claffes will be affected by the politicks of govern- 
ment, in having a greater or lefs military eftablith- 
ment, and by the taxes which may be laid on that 
ufeful animal, and ‘the carriages he draws. The 
number of horfes kept for agriculture, and for the 
conveyance of commodities from place to place, may 
be confiderably affe&ed ‘in various ways:—by en- 
couraging the ufe of oxen; by improvements in im- 
plements of hufbandry, and wheel-carriages; ‘by the 
extenfion of navigable canals; and by the ftate of 
the publick roads. ‘To this may be added, the con- 
folidation of {mall eftates; which, Mr. Davis re- 
marks, ‘¢ has tended very much to reduce the num-- 
“¢ ber of horfes;’”? and produces an inftance, where 
? 9 WHEICS 
on fourteen yard-lands, of gol. a year each, there — 
were twenty-feven horfes kept, fifty years ago, more 
than there are at prefent. 
The demand for the oat crop is not only liable to 
be affeéted by future contingencies, but the growth 
of this article does not, in general, come into a regu- 
lar courfe ofcrops. Bad farmers will fow them when 
the ground is fo exhaufted as to be incapable of 
bearing any thing elfe. Mr. Davis obferves, that 
** oats are feldom fown in very great quantities but 
“¢ in fuch foils and fituations as will not bear barley ; 
** that even where they have a regular tenantry oat- 
“¢ field, the farmers look upon the cultivation of them 
** to be bad hufbandry; and will frequently forego 
** the crop, to give an additional year’s reft to their 
“¢ wheat 
