SUMMER [Chap. 



the bottom. This earthing up, therefore, is a 

 work that ought not to be neglected, though I 

 neglected it this year, wholly neglected it, in a 

 great part of the field ; and it was in no part 

 done well, for, the distance was not sufficient for 

 a due performance of the work ; and, though my 

 crop is large, it would have been a great deal 

 larger if all these operations had been performed 

 in due time and manner. 



110. I must here make an observation, which i 

 think I have somewhere made before, that, though 

 the Scripture forbids us to muzzle the ox as he 

 treadeth out the corn. Scripture does not forbid us 

 (and the good of ourselves, as well as of the ox, 

 call upon us to do it) to muzzle him when he is 

 ploughing in the corn ; and not only the ox, but 

 the horse. Reining up will not do. There must 

 be a muzzle to prevent the animal from cropping 

 off, in spite of your teeth, the plants between 

 which you are ploughing. You may gag a horse, 

 by putting a short stick in his mouth, of the 

 thickness of a broom-stick, and tying th-e ends 

 tightly back to some parts of the harness ; but 

 this is not so good as an effectual muzzle, which 

 leaves room for the opening of the mouth, and 

 prevents the possibility of biting. When, ind-eed, 

 the plant has protluced its crop, these gentle, 

 docile, and useful, fellow-labourers of man, are 

 fairly entitled to their share, and particularly the 



