LIVE STOCK. 311 



twenty dollars, per year. These expenses all have reference to 

 the local prices of agricultural produce j and I give them rather 

 as matters of curiosity, than of direct utility to my American 

 readers. The amount of ploughing for a day s work is an acre 

 of land, but, in some cases, an acre and a half. One farmer 

 speaks of ploughing, usually, seven acres in a week, with one pair 

 of horses. The furrow slice varies from eight to eleven inches, 

 and the distance travelled, in such case, is from twelve to six 

 teen miles a day. It does not lie within my province to speak 

 of other horses than those employed in agricultural labor. 



Oxen are employed for farm labor to a small extent, and in 

 few counties. On Lord Leicester s farm, at Holkham, so much 

 and so long celebrated, they are used and worked in leather har 

 nesses ; and in some places, I have seen them worked singly in 

 harness. The general impression is, that they will not do so 

 much work as horses, are not so easily trained, and are more 

 expensive to keep ; every one of which positions is, in my opin 

 ion and experience, erroneous. I believe these opinions arise out 

 of an entire ignorance of the training of oxen. Nothing can be 

 more awkward than the management of them, which I have 

 seen here. As they are managed and trained in the best parts 

 of New England, their docility is perfect ; working without a 

 driver, in the plough field, as well as with one ; performing as 

 much work as a pair of horses, and performing it as well ; cost 

 ing comparatively nothing for harness, since a wooden yoke and 

 bows, and iron chains, which will last for years, are all that are 

 required ; when well cared for until six years old, paying, by their 

 growth, for the feed which they consume ; and, when kept in 

 good condition, as they always should be, if ruined for work by 

 any injury, or if at an age to be turned off for beef, exposing 

 their owner to no loss. In every thing but road work, I am 

 quite satisfied that a pair of well-trained oxen will perform 

 as much work as a pair of horses, and at a much less expense. 

 This was the opinion of an English ploughman, who lived 

 some time in my service, and worked wholly with oxen. He 

 had, before this, been used to horses, and a more skilful plough 

 man I have never seen on either side of the water. The use 

 of oxen has become much less common than before the intro 

 duction of the improved breeds of cattle, which are now brought 



