ON DRAUGHT OXEN. I39 



ml noftrums, under the idea of getting their 

 coats fine, until the pampered animals are con- 

 flantly in danger of their lives from the fmalleft 

 excefs of labour, or the moft trifling accident ? 

 This ftall-feedino; cuftom is a' branch of the 

 ceconomical fvfiem of thofe farmers, v/ho ride 

 forty miles to purchafe a yearling for twenty 

 pounds, in the hope of making a profit, by fell- 

 ing him for thirty-five at fix years old; the 

 annual expence of the horfe, in the interim, be- 

 ing twenty pounds, and the worth of his labour 

 perhaps five. 



Examples of the rafcally and Vv-anton teme- 

 rity of thefe mafter-fervants are too numerous. 

 In the lafl; year, two grooms in Ireland, for a 

 bet of a quartern of whifl^ey, ran a hunter of 

 high worth, at fo lofty a leap, that the horfe's 

 neck and both his fore-legs were broken in 

 the attempt, I have myfelf had, befides num- 

 bers of inferior accidents, two horfes ridden^ 

 until they dropped down dead outright r and 

 the loins of a valuable cart-horfe broken, by 

 his being whipped under a heavy load againfl 

 a hill : and let me here caution all thofe who 

 • keep cart- horfes, never to fuffer a horle to be 

 {trained by drawing too heavy a load, merely 

 to fave an idle lubberly fellow the trouble of 

 hooking on another horfe. 



It is not only ncceffary that the condu6l of 

 fervants who have the care of cattle be ftriftly 



watched. 



