VL] CULTIVATION. 



give way to him, you must make up your mind to 

 get rid of him; and, even then, you only exchange 

 one sort of half master for another. If you be 

 peremptory in your commands to him, and insist 

 upon such or such a quantity of work being done, 

 in such or such a space of time, and also insist 

 upon having your own way v/ith regard to the food 

 of the horses, he has a way of n^iaking their rough 

 coats and bare bones convince you, that he under- 

 stood these matters a great deal better than you. 

 With oxen you have no part of this everlasting 

 plague. They want neither currying, nor rub- 

 bing ; they want no straw cut up for chaff, they 

 want no stables to be cleaned out, once or twice 

 a day; they want no careful racking up by 

 candle-light ; they want no man in the stable, 

 two hours before it is time to turn out to work : 

 turned into the field or the meadow, or turned 

 to the cribs in their yard, they are ready at day- 

 light to receive the collar or the yoke, and they 

 are at work without any previous ceremony. 

 The carter gets drunk, or quits you, which he 

 legally may, in the middle of harvest, though he 

 has been living upon you all the winter ; he may 

 do this legally if he be fired with the love of fame 

 to be acquired in his Majesty's service. With 

 oxen you set botli the carter, and this most in- 

 jurious law at defiance. Any thing that has 

 two hands can put oxen in harness, and can hold 



