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preferable to horse teams, because the gait of oxen is slower 

 and their draught more steady. Another reason operates with 

 many of the farmers who fat cattle for the market, that they 

 often get their spring and summer's work, without injury to 

 the cattle, from oxen which they design for the stall in the en- 

 suing autumn. Indeed, many farmers are of opinion that, 

 in the early stages of fattening, moderate labor, with good 

 usage, is upon the whole favorable to thrift. 



It is difficult to say by what means in our community an 

 improvement in the breed of horses is likely to be brought 

 about. Nothing but high prices will effect it ; but prices have 

 considerably abated within a few years instead of increasing. 

 The multiplication of rail-roads will, to some extent, diminish 

 the demand for horses ; and many large stage establishments 

 have been ah-eady broken up. In England, the price of horses 

 is kept up, and the improvement of the breeds made an object 

 of the most extraordinary care, by the general use of horses in 

 farm labor, and the pride which opulent farmers take in their 

 fine teams ; by the great number of private carriages and the 

 large studs kept at the establishments of the nobility ; and by 

 the public races, where the contests are most spirited and the 

 stakes enormous. 



None of these causes operate in New England. Ox-teams, 

 in preference to horse-teams, are in general use. We have no 

 aristocratic establishments to indulge in splendid equipages and 

 expensive horses; and the good sense and good principles of 

 the community, and the laws growing out of them, will not, 

 by permitting horse-racing and the gambling and profligacy to 

 which it leads, encourage the improvement of our breed of 

 horses by the corruption of our breed of men, nor promote even 

 a highly desirable agricultural improvement at the expense of 

 public morals. 



What is particularly wanted in the country is an improved 

 system of farriery and a veterinary school of medicine. The 

 shoeing of a horse is an art which deserves to be studied with 

 great care ; but many of our blacksmiths, not from want of skill 



