342 BRISTOL SOCIETY. 



good qualities have often been remarked. His original cost 

 being less than one half of that of the horse, his comparative 

 freedom from disease, his early maturity for labor, his longer 

 life, his docile and tractable disposition, the facility with which 

 he may be trained to the use of man, his hardy constitution, 

 and easy adaptation to the circumstances of man, his steady, 

 even draught — the great economy in his necessary gearing, his 

 ability to subsist and fatten on cheap and coarse food, all con- 

 spire to render him more economical and serviceable to the 

 husbandman, than any other beast of burden among us. It 

 must also be remembered, that when his usefulness in the field 

 is ended, his value for other purposes is yet to be realized. 

 After a life of toilsome service on the farm, his flesh is convert- 

 ed into food for the subsistence of man, his hide protects our 

 feet, his hairy coat covers our cottage walls, his hoofs and 

 horns are invaluable for their gelatinous and oily ingredients, 

 his tallow lights our halls, and his tongue forms one of the 

 greatest delicacies of the table. Though it may be rank her- 

 esy in our day, yet in ancient times the ox was undoubtedly 

 considered the nobler of the two, for we read in Scripture, " If 

 thou meet thine enemy's ox going astray, thou shalt surely 

 bring him back again." We are commanded neither to covet 

 our neighbor's wife, nor his maid, nor his ox. So there is 

 much increase by the strength of the ox. The ox was then an 

 evidence of wealth and prosperity, and " the greatest of all the 

 men in the east," enumerated among his important possessions, 

 " five hundred yoke of o:rew." Neither in intelligence was he 

 considered inferior to other brutes, for while " the ox knoweth 

 his owner," the horse and the mule were said to '' have no un- 

 derstanding." 



But we have to do now with their characters as tested by 

 actual observation and experiment. The committee considered 

 the duty assigned to them the most perplexing and the means 

 of their decision the most unsatisfactory, of any committee in 

 the society. The committee on ploughing may reexamine the 

 furrows, and compare each with each. The committee on 

 manufactures may lay their articles side by side, and solve 

 doubts by repeated comparisons and reinspection. And so may 



