84 THE RURAL SOCRATE<J, 



Our manner of calculating in Switzerland is thus .° 

 The fubfiflence of fix oxen, at about three or four 

 5Tars old, does not cofi. more than that of four draught 

 Lories*, including the expence of forage. Tliis has 

 been tried and verified by a thoufand inftances, ih tlia'c 

 every thing decides in favor of oxen : the latter are 

 infinitely lefs delicate than horfes, are lefs liable to dif- 

 tempers and accidents, and arc much more regular in 

 labor. — Eating their food much quicker than horfes, is 

 an article that gains tv/o hours daily ; one of which, at 

 lead, may be employed in working. — As our land is, in 

 general, hot and gravelly, the manure of oxen is greatly 

 preferable to that of horfes. — The manure of hor- 

 fes wafbes and evaporates in the farm yard, and field, 

 more fpeedily than that of oxen ; and we are convinc- 

 ed that the value of the manure of cattle exceeds, in gen- 

 eral, that of horfes a fourth pa?, t, and fbmctimes one 

 half. — Thefe are no inconliderable advantages ; but that 

 which far farpaffes them all is, that every cultivator > 

 who has the leafl: degree of underftanding, may an- 

 nually make of every team of four oxen, a clear pro- 

 fit of 61. IIS. 3d. or 7!. 17s. 6d, fetting their food in 

 tjppofition to their labor, if he buys his beafls at three 

 years old, and fells them again at four, there is altrtoil: 

 an abfolute certainty of his gaining a louis and half, or 

 two louis a head. This advantage may be extended 

 much farther when the peafant has a right in any pub- 

 lic paflursgc, and can breed his own cattle. Whoever 

 has been informed, that in the greatefl part of Switzer- 

 land, particularly in the German divifion t of the canton 



of 



* This is i\ valuable fad\ : now if their oxen are equal to thofe I ufed 

 In SufFwlk, what an amazing fuperiority'for the ox culture I Thefe points 

 <)f propoftion, the expenccsot certain pra(^iccs, &c. are very important cir- 

 cumUances, as it is upon a feled^ion of fuch that thefe difputable points 

 can alone be reconciled. Y. 



l SuiJzcrland at large is divided into the German, French, and Ital- 

 ian diftritls according to the languages prevailing in its fcveral parts. 



