f , THE RURAL SOCRATES; 



nji^iereas an ox, when old and pafl labor, may be fatten- 

 ed aiid fold for his mailer's benefit. In a word, he 

 computes, that two oxen may be maintained for one 

 horfe ;* and, it may be added, ihat horfedung ^ by no 

 raeans fo beneficial to land, as the dang of horned cattle. 



The advantages which Kllyogg derives from his cat- 

 tle are, firfl:, milk and butter, for family ufes ; fecondly, 

 work ; thirdly, manure. — He very rationally confiders 

 ^le lafi article (or manure) as the bafis of the improve- 

 ment of the foil : confequently he has applied the whole 

 force of his care and indullry towards its accumulation ; 

 snd has fo well fucceeded, that, from his fmail number 

 of beafls, he colle& yearly, about a hundred tumbrel 

 Ioads»t This is double the quantity he gathered the 

 firfl year of his farmmg (which yet was equal to what 

 Lad been done by any hufbandman in the village) and 

 kd him to conclude, '' that the generality of farmers 

 *' have too great a proportion of live ftock to their 

 *' ground. '' — This conclufion appeared to me at firfl 

 very extraordinary ; and almofl tempted me to believe 

 my philofopher a man of paradox and fxngularity. But 

 his explication of this aenigma, fatisfied and undeceived 

 me. — '' When a farm," fays he, 'Ms overflocked, the 

 ** farmer is forced to fend his cows, in the fummer 

 ** months, to graze on commons at a diftance from 

 5* their ihcds ; which is the lofs of fo much to the 

 f-* farc.i-y5.rd« Tte pjve.rty pf ^hefe .commons rc- 



" duces 



^Thk determination of our cultivator is very remarkable, and ihouU 

 l>e attended to by all Englidi farmers and others, who have an opportunitj^ 

 of making a choice between horfcs and oxen for the works of huibandry» 

 *aFhi» peafant attended to the minutiae of the comparifon with an accuracy 

 onattainable in his fuperiors. He worked them, fed them, arid perform'- 

 ^ every office relative to theon, himfrif. How particularly judiciout 

 therefore cnuft be his idea* of the matter !— The proportion of tivo to on; 

 M a pi'odigious fuperiority to oxen, abfolutely dccifivc ; it is the difcoverf 

 ©fa proporiion that was greatly wajiied in hulbandryt and fhould be kept 

 ^k fneau/f^ as a poiiU of knowledge- Y . 



^ Tofl»iHre2a, 



