84- INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 



from long experience, that oxen, if properly trained, will 

 work equally fair and pleasant with horses, either in the 

 plough, the wain, or any other machine in which they move 

 straight forwards,* it may therefore be presumed, that if 

 taught, they will work equally fair when walking in the same 

 circle, and though oxen in general move slower than horses, 

 the threshing-machine can easily be so calculated., as to an- 

 swer with their slower pace* It would therefore seem, that 

 oxen are at least equal, if not superior to horses, for work- 

 ing threshing-machines. 



O O 



These arc considerations which merit well the attention 

 of every farmer in the kingdom, more especially as the price 

 of horses is constantly increasing, and as it can hardly now 

 be doubted, that for working in the threshing-mills, and 

 other extra labour, a few oxen on a farm might be attend- 

 ed with infinite advantage. 



3. The next power is wind ; and if water cannot be got, 

 it is contended, that a wind-mill is greatly superior to one 

 wrought by horses. Wind-mills are now so nicely con- 

 structed, that the sails contract and dilate, according as the 

 wind increases or decreases ; 'so that now the motion is 

 much more uniform than that of a horse-mill driven by the 

 most careful driver. The next great advantage of the wind- 

 mill is its great power, which permits more work to be done 

 in the same time, and at less expence ; as the ordinary ser- 

 Tants on the farm, if the wind is favourable, may thresh a 



* Horses will carry as well a* draw ; hence some of the load may be 

 put on their back, and the horse is the better for it, more especially go- 

 ing up hill. Oxen, on the other hand, will draw, but cannot carry; 

 tumbril carts, therefore, haying three wheels, are the best for them. If 

 oxen are apt to be giddy in a threshing machine, they should be blind- 

 folded, as horses sometimes are. Giddiness may be occasioned by the 

 gmallness of the diameter of the course. 



