260 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



machine for turning it into flesh. If allowed to take a slower 

 gait, with a correspondingly heavier load, the average ox may 

 be able to pull as many foot pounds in a day as the average 

 horse in proportion to the food consumed. This has not been 

 put to a satisfactory scientific test. 



However that may be, there is no doubt that one man, with a 

 good team of horses, will be able to do more work of the gen- 

 eral and miscellaneous kinds which come up on a farm in the 

 course of a year than he could do with a yoke of oxen, though 

 he might not be able to do more of special kinds of work, such 

 as breaking sod or plowing heavy ground. In a country such 

 as Italy, where labor is cheap and where it is therefore not a 

 matter of supreme importance to get as much work out of 

 each man as possible, the lower cost of the oxen might easily 

 compensate for the smaller amount of work done. But in a 

 country like the United States, where labor is dear, it is highly 

 important that it be economized and that each man should be 

 enabled to accomplish as much as possible. Therefore it may 

 pay better to equip him with a team of horses than a yoke of 

 oxen, even though the horses cost a great deal more, provided 

 he will accomplish more with them. This is a principle of 

 economy of very wide application. If you are hiring a very 

 expensive man, you must not give him a cheap equipment for 

 his work, provided you can get more and better work out of 

 him by giving him a more expensive equipment. But if you are 

 hiring a cheap man, it may not pay you to give him the expen- 

 sive equipment. If one cheap man with a cheap equipment is 

 not able to do all your work, it may be cheaper to hire two than 

 to give the one a more expensive equipment. The high price of 

 American labor is the final economic reason for the general 

 displacement of the ox by the horse on American farms, and 

 the low price of labor in southern Europe is the final economic 

 reason why the ox is still used in preference to the horse. 



