USEFUL PROJECTS. 



401 



The forty oxen which go off are 

 summered in the hest pasture, and 

 finished with turnips the ensuing 

 mnter. The usual way has been to 

 draw the turnips, either stalled or 

 in cribbs placed in the yard, and 

 to give them plenty of straw to 

 browse and lie upon : but last win- 

 ter an experiment was tried, which 

 answered extremely well, and will 

 be again repeated next winter : 

 this was, penning the oxen by day 

 Upon the turnip-land, in the manner 

 that sheep are penned, with this 

 only difference, that the turnips 

 were thrown up into cribbs, instead 

 of being left to be trodden into the 

 ground : and in the nights they 

 were driven into a yard, with a tem- 

 porary shed well littered with 

 rushes, fern, andleaves, and turnips 

 and barley-straw given to them in 

 cribbs. They thrived verj' fast, and 

 every one of them made at least 

 eight loads of good muck in the 

 night-yard, besides the benefit done 

 in treading and dunging on the land 

 in the day time, which was very 

 great, the soil being very light. 

 The result of the ox system is, that 

 charging the oxfor his agistment tjie 

 first year, for the value of the grass 

 and turnips the last j'ear, and put- 

 ting what he has in three interme- 

 diate years as an equivalent for his 

 labour, after every allowance for 

 risk each ox will pay at least twenty 

 per cent profit. In what instance 

 does a horse produce so much ? 



I do not contend that the ox can be 

 used on all soils ; upon a very stony 

 soil he cannot : nor can the horse in 

 all places be wholly excluded from 

 husbandry ; but every occupier of 

 a large farm may at least use some 

 oxen to very great advantage. They 

 are all worked at Windsor in col- 

 lars, as their step is found to be 



Vol XLII. 



much more free than when coupled 

 together with yokes ; and they are 

 found to do their work with much 

 greater ease in collars than in yokes, 

 which ought every where to be ex- 

 ploded. 



The different kinds of oxen are 

 in some measure suited to the soil. 

 Upon the Norfolk farm, which is a 

 light soil; the Devonshire sort are 

 used ; upon the Flemish farm, where 

 the soil is strong and heavy, the 

 Herefordshire ; and in the park, 

 where the business is carting, har- 

 rowing, and rolling, the Glamorgan- 

 shire. They are all excellent in 

 their different stations. 



It may not be improper to men- 

 tion a very simple method which 

 has been discovered, of first training 

 them to the collar, which is nothing 

 more than putting a broad strap 

 round their necks, and fastening one 

 end of a coi"d to it, and the other 

 to a large log of wood, and letting 

 the ox draw it about as he feeds in 

 his pasture for three or four days, 

 before he is put into harness, by 

 which means he is very much 

 brought forward in docility. 



I have before observed, that 

 twewty per cent may be considered 

 as the average profit of an ox ; 

 stating them to be bought in at 10/. 

 and allowing them to sell for 25/. 

 taking off 10/. for the two years 

 they are not worked : but last year, 

 beans being of very little value, 

 they were kept longer than usual, 

 by being stall-fed with bean-meal, 

 which answered very well, as they 

 were brought to an average of 

 nearly 30/. ; and one of them, a Gla- 

 morganshire ox, originally bought 

 for 8/. and, from his compact round 

 make, always called the little ox, 

 thrived to such a surprising degree, 

 tliat he became too fat to be able to 



Dd 



