196 



THE FARMERS' CABINET. 



VOL. I. 



pursuing this course for a few days, his ob- 

 jection to work with the other oxen will be 

 overcome ; his labor, however, must be very 

 gentle ; he should neither be fatigued nor 

 over-heated, for if hurried in hot weather he 

 may be exposed to the flux. 



Cleanliness, though not so essential to 

 oxen as to horses, should be also attended 

 to ; his feet and legs should be well washed, 

 and his coat be wisped over after he has 

 worked ; and this kind of care, though too 

 commonly neglected, will tend to keep him 

 in spirit and condition. He should then form 

 one of a pair, which should be yoked to- 

 gether; or, if there be a pair of well broken- 

 in oxen upon the farm, the most advisable 

 plan is to yoke the young ones behind them ; 

 and as the spring is the usual time of doing 

 this, they may be attached to a molding- 

 sledge, or bush-harrow, upon grass-land, 

 and thus be made in a slicrht degree useful 

 even in the breaking. After two or three 

 trials in this way, they may be put to har- 

 rowing fallow-ground; but for the first few 

 weeks it is generally found advantageous to 

 let them follow older oxen. When thus 

 broken-in at two years old, they give very 

 little trouble, and become gradually accus- 

 tomed to every kind of work. It is, however, 

 to be understood, that oxen are unfitted for 

 much labor until they have reached their 

 third year; therefore, until they are tho- 

 roughly trained, they should only be em- 

 ployed at short intervals ; but it is from that 

 period, until they are six years old, that 

 they are most active and useful in the 

 draught. By this time, too, they will have 

 fully attained their growth, and their value, 

 instead of increasing, would be lessened, as 

 they fatten more readily before seven years 

 of age than they do after it, and make finer 

 beef. It is generally observed that, although 

 aged oxen have the advantage in strength, 

 yet the younger ones are decidedly prefera- 

 ble for all light work, which requires more 

 speed. 



On farms where oxen have not been al- 

 ready employed, the young steers may be 

 very readily broken-in to work by having an 

 old steady horse put before them. We can- 

 not, however, but advert to a common prac- 

 tice, which, though prevalent chiefly among 

 small farmers, is yet by no means unusual 

 on many larger concerns — of pairing horses 

 OP mules together at the same work with 

 oxen, which, of all the preposterous customs 

 ever sanctioned by ignorance, seems the 

 most absurd. A sl'iggish ox is thus some- 

 times coupled with an active horse : at first 

 the latter exhausts his strength, but at 

 length, finding his advantage in moderating 

 his pace, he adopts tije slow step of the 

 former, and, having once acquired the habit, 



it soon becomes fixed, and he suffers great in- 

 jury in his value. A single horse is in that 

 manner often added, either as a wheeler or a 

 leader, to a pair of oxen, from an idea that 

 such a mode of draught is more handy than 

 when oxen are employed alone, but it is a 

 custom which no plea can really excuse. 



Oxen, though usually worked in pairs, are 

 yet often used in double couples, and driven 

 by a boy, whose chant, which is continued 

 with unabated ardour throughout the day, the 

 ploughman throwing in at intervals his 

 hoaser notes, is in many parts of the country 

 thought to have a very peculiar charm in 

 cheering them on to their labor. Nor is the 

 lad's time thus wholly thrown away, for he 

 must himself learn to drive and hold, and 

 the expense forms but a trifling additional 

 charge upon a team. 



There is also another, and a very simple 

 mode adopted by many foreign farmers to 

 induce obstinate steers to take kindly to their 

 work, without either loss of time in attend- 

 ance or unnecessary force, and merely by 

 acting upon their appetite. According to 

 this plan the animal is harnessed, and fast- 

 ened by the collar to a cord or chain, which 

 runs in aring, to which a weight is appended 

 at the manger, which he can approach or re- 

 tire from at pleasure. Another weight is 

 then hung to his traces by the center of the 

 splinter-bar, and rests upon the ground, 

 passing through a puUy upon which it moves. 

 The weight to which the steer is thus at- 

 tached may be about a cwt. or more, and he 

 is then placed at the full length of his chain 

 from the manger, which is filled with prov- 

 ender, and he cannot approach to eat without 

 drawing the weight after him. In this man- 

 ner he soon accustoms himself to move the 

 load, and in the course of a fortnight he will 

 probably be tamed without further trouble, 

 of which the preceding cut (Fig. 54, at the 

 head of this number) will aflTord a clear idea. 



For tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Observer— Wo. 1. 



1 have observed a remarkable propensity 

 in most men, to sel> up what they call facts, 

 on evidence altogether insufficient to sustain 

 them. From these presumed facts, they too 

 often draw hasty and premature conclusions 

 by incorrect reasoning. I have also observed 

 a strong inclination to indulge in theoretical 

 speculations. An abundance of theories are 

 thus formed, having no better foundations, 

 than the suppositious facts on which they 

 are erected. Those facts and conclusions, 

 and those theories, constitute the greater 



