MIXED LABOUR OF MEN, HORSES, AND OXEN. 101 



It is an unsettled question among the farmers of New 

 Brunswick, and of New England also, whether, with 

 their long winters, it is more profitable to do their farm- 

 work with oxen or with horses. The general arguments 

 in favour of oxen are, that cattle are more cheaply kept 

 during the winter, and that, when they have served a 

 certain number of years, they can be fatted off and 

 sold to the butcher without any loss of capital. That 

 reason and experience have still something to advance 

 in favour of oxen, even in Great Britain, we may infer 

 from their use in ploughing and for draught in places so 

 far remote as Sussex in the south of England, and 

 Aberdeenshire in the north of Scotland. 



Where human labour is dear, however, and quick 

 work is therefore desirable, the question is no longer 

 merely whether the horse or the ox taken alone does 

 most in return for his keep and cost, but whether the 

 pair of oxen and the man together are as economical as 

 the pair of horses and the man who works with them. 

 In the former case, the speed of the man, whose wages 

 are high, is regulated by that of the slow oxen ; in the 

 latter, by that of the quick horses and the slow or 

 quick pace he acquires in following his cattle will 

 accompany him in all his other operations. Were the 

 question to be considered in this way, as one of mixed 

 labour, I believe farmers would have less difficulty in 

 regard to the adoption of horses than many, both in 

 Europe and America, now profess to feel. 



I have been led to make these remarks in this place 

 from the very ludicrous combinations, or mixture of 

 motive power, which I saw in my excursion along 

 Shepody Bay. On the road, teams of four oxen and 

 two horses yoked together to the same waggon of hay, 

 or load of marsh-mud, were not infrequent 5 and, in the 

 fields, two oxen and one horse, with a boy to drive and 

 a man to hold the plough. A second horse, in place of 



