USE OP OXEN. 145 



necessary for himself, the carrier pursues his way over a waste of 

 thirty days or six weeks passage. From Buenos Ayres to Mendoza 

 the distance is nine hundred miles, and the journey is perl'ormed in 

 about thirty days." 



In some parts of England they formerly had ox races, and it is said 

 that some years ago an ox ran four miles, over the course at Lewis, 

 for one hundred guineas, at the rate of fifteen miles the hour. 



We are told that in India bullocks are used for the saddle and 

 coach, and that there travelling oxen are curried, clothed and attend- 

 ed, witii as much solicitude, and much greater kindness, than we 

 bestow on our best horses. The Indian cattle are extremely docile, 

 and quick of perception, patient and kind ; like the horses, their chief 

 travelling pace is the trot; and they are reported by those who have 

 ridden them often, to perform journeys of sixty successive days at 

 the rate of thirty to forty-five miles a day. 



To come back to our own country on this point, it is worthy of 

 being here added that in an address delivered before the Barnwell 

 Agricultural Society of South Carolina in 1821, Dr. J. S. Bellinger 

 remarked, that " in the lower districts of our State they appear fully 

 to appreciate the value of their labour in heavy drafts. With those 

 of us who have attempted the use of them, oxen appear fully calcu- 

 lated to answer the many purposes upon our farms to which we almost 

 exclusively apply the more expensive, though nobler animal, the 

 horse." 



Time was when the horse was not considered "the nobler" of the 

 two ; else why the many cautions in Scripture in favour and in honour 

 of the ox — thou shalt not muzzle the ox — thy ox shall not labour 

 on the Sabbath day — thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife nor 

 his maid — nor his ox! 



The late James M. Garnett, of Virginia, honoured be his name by 

 all friends of American agriculture, stated in one of his addresses — 

 "A gentleman of my acquaintance had a mixed team of horses, 

 mules, and oxen — in each season his horses failed first, the mules 

 next, although both were fed upon grain and hay; and the oxen, fed 

 exclusively on hay and gr^ss^ finished the crop. But to come down to 

 the present time and nearer home, in Maryland, at the hottest season 

 of the year and the most busy one with the planter, the same teams 

 of oxen are worked, during the whole day, hauling very heavy loads 

 of green tobacco for weeks together, and do well without any food 

 but the grass of common pasturage on being turned out at night — 

 whereas horses, working steadily in the same way, on the national 

 Toad in wagons, consume twenty-five pounds of hay, and grain at the 

 rate of four bushels of oats per day for the five horses, or four-fifths 

 of a bushel for each horse — or, what is considered equivalent, four 

 bushels of corn in the ear — making of oats at the rate of two hundred 

 and thirty-two bushels for each horse for a year! 



As to horse power on the national road, the following is the answer 

 from Major Thruston: — 

 13 



