CATTLE. 125 



rubbing the parts with fresh lard or sweet oil where the yoke chafes. Never work an ox or 

 a horse with a sore neck, but allow the animal rest until the sore is perfectly healed. Never 

 shout at oxen as though they were deaf and it required the utmost power of the lungs to 

 make them hear. It is amusing to see some farmers drive their oxen. We have seen 

 drivers where the wonder was that they did not tire themselves out by their shouts and 

 gestures, for they appeared to work harder in driving the team than the oxen did in drawing 

 the load. Low, quiet tones are better than loud ones, at all times in securing the best results 

 in drawing. 



A Mr. White of Canada, who gained considerable celebrity in training oxen a few 

 years since, and who trained a pair that were for some time on exhibition through the 

 country, says respecting his method : 



&quot;The first thing necessary in training oxen is kindness, then patience. I began in 

 November last, not knowing whether I could get my oxen taught in time for this season or 

 at all, but I soon found them so tractable that my hopes began to be raised. It took me just 

 a day to learn that it wasn t necessary to strike a blow or speak a word. The farmers who 

 go along shouting at their oxen and goading them waste their breath and strength. A 

 dozen yoke of oxen could be taught to draw a load a hundred miles without a word or blow. 

 It is only necessary that the farmer should lead to show the direction, and the beasts, if they 

 have been kindly treated and have an affection for their master, will do the rest. These oxen 

 were trained by uniform kindness. A series of tricks in regular order was fixed upon, and 

 I put them through every day. I was with them nearly all the time, and they followed me 

 like two pet kittens. There was a ring in the stables where I taught them day by day. 

 First, with food in my hands I got them to follow me around the ring in any direction I 

 chose to take. In this way I got them to go along on their knaes, and to waltz. What they 

 knew when I got them had practically to be untaught, as it was all done by gee and haw. 

 I found that they were quick of sight, and that, having taught them certain things, I needed 

 after that to simply get where they could see me, and give them a cue by the motion of my 

 body or my whip in a certain direction. In this way the waltz was taught, and when they 

 go around the ring on their knees I keep ahead of them and they follow me.&quot; 



Never load working oxen too heavily; if you do they will not have courage to take 

 hold readily with energy when called upon by the driver. Never dull and discourage them 

 with prolonged exertion with impossibilities. They should be generally fed with good hay 

 and grain when on active duty, and always at regular intervals, morning, noon, and night. 

 Great and permanent injury is the frequent result of light feeding, combined with the heavy 

 work too often exacted from these patient and uncomplaining servants of man. Strength 

 and spirit rapidly decline under the overworked, straining system, and soon nothing remains 

 but a stupid, moping brute. The whip is needed to indicate the precise movement desired, 

 and not except in very rare instances as a stimulant or means of punishment. Oxen cannot 

 endure the heat as well as horses, and are liable to be overheated in the spring and hot summer 

 weather. When once injured in this way, they rarely ever fully recover from the effects. 

 Oxen should be groomed and well cared for, and their stables kept clean and comfortable. 

 The ox is considered in his prime at five or six years of age, and continues to be equally 

 useful until about nine or ten years old, but is seldom as active after the eighth year. It is 

 generally considered better to fatten oxen at or before arriving at that age, and have younger 

 ones take their places in the yoke. 



Cattle Herding, etc. It is probable that few persons outside the great cattle herd 

 ing region of the Northwest have any definite idea of the vast numbers of cattle raised there, 

 or the enormous amount of capital invested in stock not confined within the boundaries of 

 farms, but which are herded summer and winter, subsisting upon the grasses and herbage of 

 the extensive grazing lands of these plains. It is estimated that the almost boundless grazing 

 VOL. II 8. 



