oxen much superior to horses, being much more steady'. 

 It is necessary, however, that the driver should hum/M^r 

 the ox in the mill, and that the machine should be made 

 to go with more velocity, on account of the slower pacp 

 of the horse. 



As a proof of the advantage of employing oxen, Mr 

 Wood states, that he tried the following experiment. 

 He put up twelve oxen into one court , they all had one 

 sort of food, namely, as many turnips as served them, 

 and as much straw as they could destroy, and were all in 

 good condition when put in. Six of them were idle, the 

 other six wrought in the mill. He turned all the 

 twelve out at the same time upon young grass, and sold 

 them off about the first week in July, in the public mar- 

 ket in Edinburgh, and found the butchers always fixed 

 upon the worked oxen as the fattest ; it was of course 

 evident, that their work had done them no harm. The 

 whole were winter stock ; their cost on an average 

 was about eleven pounds, and they sold at seventeen 

 guineas each. The wrought oxen, however, were a year 

 older than the idle, which might help to make them feed 

 faster. The next season, having betwixt sixty and 

 seventy turnip cattle, the greater part of which were 

 tied up early in October ; he was under the necessity, 

 therefore, of threshing spon after harvest, to have plenty 

 of straw for litter, &c. He now found himself enabled, 

 (his other farming work being well forward), to tie up 

 his worked oxen to the stake, and they were sold, after 

 being kept six weeks, for upwards of twenty guineas 

 each. Their original cost was twelve guineas a head, 

 about the last week in July, and they were fed on coarse 

 land, till the threshing began, and then got turnip and 

 straw. Hence it must be obvious, that this plan is at- 

 tended with a profit; whereas, by using horses for 



