AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 13T 



reacK to six feet. In these instances, however, the bend or curve is very 

 slight. The internal capacity of a horn is of course considerable, and, as 

 Bruce the Abyssinian traveler mentions, they seem to have been, before 

 the introduction of better utensils, used along the eastern coast of Africa, 

 as vessels for holding liquids, grains, &c. They are still so used among 

 many tribes, and give us to understand that the Greek emblem of "the 

 horn of plenty " arose from a real practice in ancient times in using 

 horns for the same purpose. 



The traffic or transport of produce is carried on mainly by means of 

 these oxen. On the road they get on cleverly, and at a fair pace as to 

 speed. But the roads, generally, are shockingly bad ; for the cultivable 

 regions, though not offering mountains of great height, are marvelously 

 ruggid and precipitous. In the mountain passes, pieces of the road may 

 be found, up which it is not easy to conceive how an ox could creep even 

 without a load, still less how any thing could get down, except by rolling 

 tail over head. In some such instances the practice was to pull the load 

 and the wagon to pieces, pack the fragments on the backs of the oxen, 

 and, when in this way the difficulty was got over, then build all up again. 

 Some of the plains and valleys are deep sand. From these causes a great 

 deal of power, acting, or in reserve, must accompany a wagon. The 

 weight dragged in it does not amount to more than about a ton and a quar- 

 ter, yet the common team or span generally consists of fourteen oxen. 

 Sometimes more are seen in yoke. But the main lines of transport have 

 of late been greatly improved, and these long teams are disappearing. 



On account of this need of great dragging force, and of the general bar- 

 renness of the territory, a farmer requires a large extent of land. He 

 does not feel satisfied with less than .5,000 or 6,000 acres, most of which 

 is kept in a state of rude bushy pasture, to sustain his oxen. He culti- 

 vates some thirty or forty acres, cropping it until it will yield no more, and 

 then betaking himself to another piece. In fact the number of farms may 

 be considered as limited by the number of springs, or of supplies of water 

 from streams. Between siich points there may be great tracts of land 

 which are almost worthless. Hence, subdivision of farms is, as a general 

 practice, almost impossible. 



The following statistic details w\\\ serve to illustrate this point. Taking 

 certain districts of the province of Worcester as approaching to an average 

 of the region, we find in three of its districts that the average size of the 

 farms is respectively, twenty-six square miles, forty-eight square miles, and 

 twenty-one square miles. The districts differ in extent and fertility, but 

 the average of the whole is about thirty square miles, or about i20,000 

 acres each. These estimates include great spaces of waste land between 

 the farms, which, as being of no other use, the government has been sub- 

 dividing among the neighboring proprietors. On any of these allotments 

 of territory, where water is not scanty, a respectable hamlet of colored 

 laborers may maintain themselves. The abolition of slavery is gradually 



