INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 



live to his horses, though they were very high fed.* The 

 use of oxen, therefore, in this operation, may certainly be 

 looked upon, in some degree, as an improvement in agricul- 

 ture. It is but fair to add, that for the first four or five 

 times, the oxen are very awkward in the mill, and great 

 care is then necessary to teach them ; but after that, they 

 go more steadily than horses. When once a mill also, is 

 constructed for the slow motion of oxen, which must go 

 with more velocity on account of the slower pace of the ox 

 than of the horse, it is necessary to employ oxen constant- 

 ly for the sake of the machinery. 



Mr Andrew Gray makes the following observations on 

 this interesting subject. Some persons are of opinion, that 

 as oxen in general move very slow, hence much time and 

 labour would be lost in working them. That, however, 

 can be obviated, by altering the velocity of the machine. It 

 is also doubted whether oxen are as well adapted as horses 

 for walking in a circle. A farmer in the county of Moray, 

 however, informs me, that he has used four oxen in a 

 threshing-mill, at one of his farms, and that he found they 

 did equally well as horses , by which his plough-horses 

 were relieved, and the oxen he worked, were kept in good 

 condition, by turnips and straw : and as it has been found 



* It is said, that on the greatest part of farms, hands for threshing 

 cannot be got, independent of the ploughmen ; the exemption of horses, 

 therefore, is an object of less consequence. Labourers, however, maybe 

 hired, and in bad weather, the horses will be refreshed by rest, and will not 

 require to be so highly fed. Besides, on all large farms, there are spade- 

 men and others, who may work at the threshing-mill ; and where there 

 are water-mills, it is not unusual to have a distinct set of hands, who 

 soon acquire more expertness, than ploughmen or others, who can only 

 be occasionally employed. It is an invariable rule with all good farmers, 

 never to separate the ploughman from his horses, when the weather will 

 allow him to work with them. 



