1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



287 



each year feasting the eye with new beauties and 

 regaling the taste with still more delicious fruits. 

 One more new and untried scheme upon which 

 the farmer lias ventured, and we are done. This 

 is patronizing and sustaining the agricultural 

 press. Almost one-fourth of the nineteenth cen 

 tury had passed away when the first agricultural 

 paper made its appearance in America ; and it is 

 not probable that one in a hundred of the formers 

 saw such a paper, or one in fifty knew of its exist- 

 ence, for years after its first issue. By the many 

 it was looked upon as a regular humbug, fresh 

 from tlie city. But it lived, — its circulation in- 

 creased, it was read and re-read. The demand 

 came for more, and now not less than a dozen sim 

 ilar papers, each of high character, are issuing in 

 various sections of the country, besides a host of 

 smaller fry, whose columns are in part devoted, 

 professedly, to the same object of giving agricul 

 tural knowledge. We might go further, but we 

 promised to stop, and therefore forbear, only hop 

 ing that agricultural lyceums and farmers' clubs, 

 or whatever name they may bear, will be multi 



{)lied until their numl)ers become as plenty as the 

 ocusts of Egypt, and that every lyceum or club 

 will have its library and cabinet, and every other 

 appendage necessary or convenient for intellectual 

 progress in tlie arts so essential to the well being 

 of mankind at large. 



Yours truly, w. B. 



Elmwood, May 6, 1853. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 OXEN AND HORSES. 



BY M. M. FISKE. 



Messrs. Editors: — Having read an article in 

 your paper of Jan. 1st, which advocated the supe- 

 riority of oxen over horses for farming purposes, 

 and having some leisure time which could not be 

 employed to better advantage, I have thought 

 proper to offer the following remarks. 



The ox is certainly a noble animal, his species 

 being one of the greatest blessings ever conferred 

 upon man ; and what will be more acceptable to 

 our Creator for the above than to care and provide 

 for such animals as are committed to our steward- 

 ship, as we would wish to be cared for undef the 

 same circumstances. Indeed, I firmly and reli- 

 giously believe that it is a law of Heaven, designed 

 for their special protection, that the benefit to be 

 derived from their possession will be in exact pro- 

 portion to the kindness and mercy exercised to- 

 wards them. 



To the farmer whose land is very rocky and un- 

 even, oxen are indispensable; but to those whose 

 soil is measurably smooth and easy of cultivation, 

 the horse is decidedly preferable, whether for the 

 profit of his labor or the pleasure of driving. 



To ascertain the correctness of the above, we 

 must calculate the cost of keeping for each, per 

 week, and which will answer the best and great- 

 est variety of purposes of the farmer. 



A statement was published a few years since, 

 by the Hon. B. V. French, of Braintree, in which 

 he made the actual cost of keeping his horses per 

 head, per week, to be $1,50 ; this was probably 

 when hay was lower than at present, but this fact 

 will bear equally against the ox. 



It is a common saying that a horse will eat as 

 much, or more, than two cows, and that two 



horses will eat as much as three oxen, and it may 

 be so, but ray experience gives entirely a different 

 result. A pair of oxen weighing 3000 lbs. are by 

 no means uncommon, as many such cattle are kept 

 in this vicinity, and I have no hesitation in saying 

 that such a pair will eat 700 lbs. of hay per week, 

 if they are kept at labor during the fair weather, 

 allowing them all the stormy weather for rest. To 

 support this assertion by evidence, I would ad- 

 duce the fact of an experiment being made in this 

 town by two different men, whose names will be 

 given if required, purchasing each a yoke of oxen, 

 to accommodate the people of their vicinity with 

 the labor of themselves and oxen at $2,50 per 

 day ; they had work in such abundance that it 

 was with difiiculty they could keep their custom- 

 ers at peace with themselves and each other, as 

 to whom they should first serve. Being obliged 

 to purchase everything that their cattle eat, they 

 could not get money enough to support them and 

 their families, and were obliged to abandon the 

 enterprise altogether. 



Another case in point, is that of a friend who 

 says he had not the least doubt of his making mo- 

 ney by working out with his oxen at $2,00 per 

 day, until he purchased 600 lbs. of hay at $1,00 

 per hundred, which was consumed by them alone 

 in five and a half days. 



A pair of horses weighing 2000 lbs. are of re- 

 spectable size, and are as large as would be prof- 

 itable for most farmers to keep. Now is it rea- 

 sonable to suppose that it will cost as much to 

 support 2000 lbs. of horse flesh, as 3000 lbs. of ox 

 flesh ■? No sane man will say so, whose mind is free 

 from prdjudice. But it will be argued that oxen 

 can be kept cheap in winter when they are idle ; 

 to this I would answer, so can a horse under the 

 same circumstances. But neither should be kept 

 to look at, as there is no reason, to my knowledge, 

 why they should not with proper care in feeding, 

 or driving, &c., work every fair day, as well as 

 their owner or driver. 



I have known some men to be dreadfully dis- 

 turbed if their horses or oxen worked over 8 hours, 

 or even that, in a day, while they could see their 

 wives and daughters work sixteen or eighteen with 

 the most perfect indifference. 



Two horses harnessed side by side on a four 

 wheel cart will haul as much manure as a yoke of 

 oxen; on any common plain they will be fully equal, 

 if not superior for plowing, and if the weather 

 should be extremely warm, as it often is in the 

 spring, the advantage is nearly two to one in favor 

 of the horses. 



An ox team of one yoke cannot be divided ; the 

 horses can; otie can go to the mill or to the store, 

 or to visit a sick friend, while the other is plowing 

 out the corn, &c.; two teams can be made of them 

 to cart hay, rake, &c. 



Since writing the above, T have conversed with 

 a number of citizens of this town, who use horses 

 exclusively, and others who use both oxen and 

 horses, upon the comparative expense of their 

 keeping and value of their labor. The statements 

 of some of these I will give, not desiring to be un- 

 derstood that the men whose names I shall men- 

 tion are wise above all others, but that they will 

 be considered as good authority, wherever they 

 are known. 



Mr. Harrison Eames keeps a pair of horses 

 weighing about 2000 lbs. ; cost of keeping per week 



