SUMMER [Chap. 



ted ; and I know of no fault in a labourer, which 

 has so often excited my displeasure, and pro- 

 duced at my hands the sole punishment in my 

 power to inflict, as that of beating, or even using 

 foul language to horses or oxen working in the 

 fields. The second best ploughman I ever had 

 in my life I discharged on a Monday afternoon, 

 giving him the remainder of the week's wages, 

 for nothing, but having accidentally heard him 

 abusing his horses while he was at plough ; and, 

 upon coming into the field, seeing him beating 

 about the liead a mare, which we always re- 

 garded as, and which was, a most docile and 

 valuable creature. 



111. Before I dismiss this chapter entirely, I 

 mustgive my opinion relative to the choice between 

 oxen and horses, in this business of corn ; 

 and, indeed, in farm- work generally. I am de- 

 cidedly for the using of oxen, for reasons a bare 

 list of which, each occupying- one line, would fill 

 a page of this book. In the first place, the 

 harness, if harness be used and not yokes, and I 

 will proceed first upon that supposition, is much 

 less expensive, and requires less strength, than 

 that which is to stand the jerking and the starting 

 of a horse. Second : food upon which a horse 

 will not be able to work at all is quite sufficient 

 for an ox ; the latter does not cost for his food a 

 fourth, or even a sixth, and perhaps a tenth, 



