450 



TEA 



TEA 



TEAM, the beasts that are used 

 tog' ther in draught. 



The right ordering and manage- 

 ment of a teann is a matter of no 

 little consequence to the farmer, 

 not ou\y in ploughing and harrow- 

 ing, but in carting and sledding. 



In some countries, teams consist 

 only of horses, but in a new 

 country, wliere roads are bad, and 

 the ground full of obstacles, this 

 will not answer. A horse team 

 travels so much quicker than oxen, 

 that where there are many obsta- 

 cles, no harness will hold them ; 

 and violent jerks would injure and 

 discourage if not ruin, the horses. 



But in fields that are perfectly 

 cleared, ploughing with horses may 

 be performed with much greater 

 despatch and advantage. An acre 

 and a half is but a moderate day's 

 work for a team of horses, whereas 

 an ox team seldom does more than 

 an acre. And there is a propor- 

 tionable advantage in teaming on a 

 good road with horses. 



But when it is considered how 

 much more expensive the support 

 of horses is, than that of oxen, and 

 that an ox, when past labouring, is 

 valuable for beef, the general use 

 of horses in the draught is not to 

 be accounted eligible, in any coun- 

 try. Mr. Marshall computes that 

 a million sterling annually is lost 

 in Britain, by the using of horses 

 for draught instead of oxen : And 

 that a hundred thousand persons 

 might be supplied with a pound of 

 animal food per day, without con- 

 suming one additional blade of 

 grass, if oxen were used in general. 



The slowness of oxen is partly 

 natural, and partly acquired. That 



excessive slowness may be prevent- 

 ed, care should be taken never to 

 overload them. When their work 

 is easy, they may be quickened 

 without danger of hurting ihem ; 

 and their contracting a habit of 

 moving slowly may be thus pre- 

 vented. 



It IS also found, that old oxen are 

 always apt to be slower thaji young 

 ones. It is not advisable, there- 

 fore, to continue to work them till 

 they are old ; but to turn them off 

 at six or seven years old, at which 

 age they will be better beef than 

 older cattle. 



Perhaps a team consisting partly 

 of oxen and partly of horses, may 

 be found to be, upon the whole, of 

 the greatest advantage, especially 

 among small farmers. For they 

 find it needful to keep one horse or 

 more, which will be idle most of 

 the time, unless they work him in 

 the team with the oxen. 



The methods of harnessing a 

 team, are so well known to farmers 

 by their experience, that they 

 would perhaps scorn to be instruct- 

 ed in it. But I would recommend 

 it to them to take it into conside- 

 ration, whether improvements 

 might not be made in this article 

 of ruial economy- Particularly, 

 whether the hard and heavy wood- 

 en yokes with which oxen are 

 worked, should not give place to a 

 mode of harnessing similar to that 

 of horses. Collars, to open and 

 shut at the top, with hames and 

 traces, for oxen, are used in Eng- 

 land, and have been recommended 

 by some of its ingenious writers. 

 But if this advise 'should be gene- 

 rally followed in this country, the 



