288 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JtTNE 



as near as he can estimate is $3,00. These horses 

 for a number of years have done all the work on 

 his farm, (which is a good sized one,) in addition 

 to a large amount of plowing, hauling manure, 

 wood, &c., for his neighboi-s, being constantly em- 

 ployed either at home or abroad. These horses, 

 when hitched to a dead pull, such as rocks, logs, 

 &c., will draw equal to any oxen. Mr. Earaes says 

 he can plow two acres of common grass land in a 

 day with his horses as quick as ho could one and a 

 quarter acres of the same with oxen. 



Col. Wm. Hastings has a pair of horses whose 

 weight is 2200 lbs.; cost of keeping, as near as he 

 can estimate, per week, S.'>,40. Keeps from one 

 to three yokes of oxen — knows by experiment that 

 a yoke of oxen of 3000 lbs. weight at labor, will 

 consume 100 lbs. of good hay in 24 hours, and al- 

 so that his horses will perform nearly or quite fif- 

 ty per cent, more labor of almost any kind, than 

 will the oxen. 



Mr. Buckley Moores has a pair of horses whose 

 weight is 2500 lbs.; cost of keeping, as near as he 

 can estimate, per week, $3,40. The performance 

 of these horses upon any kind of work he feels safe 

 in fixing at 75 per cent, more than any oxen in the 

 vicinity. If he kept oxen he would be obliged to 

 keep one horse ; kept four oxen formerly, and but 

 one horse, but found the cost of keeping much too 

 large to leave an}'' margin of profit. But by dis- 

 posing of his oxen and purchasing another horse, 

 the face of affairs was entirely changed, the span 

 of horses doing all the work of the four oxen, at 

 about one-third of the expense of keeping, besides 

 doing the single horse's work of going to mill, 

 store, meeting, &c. 



Mr. F. Child's span of horses weighs 2000 lbs.; 

 cost of keeping for dve weeks, ending Feb. 28, was 

 $17,30, being per week, $3,40. The greatest ac- 

 curacy of the cost of keeping was obtained in this 

 case, as Mr. C. purchases the whole of his hay and 

 grain, whereas those of whom I have before made 

 mention, produce everything necessary for the pur- 

 pose, from their farms. 



A loss of about 10 per cent, is sustained by 

 those who purchase their hay as they need for 

 present use, over those who take it in from the 

 field. These horses are principally employed on 

 the severest kind of labor, in hauling stimes from 

 the ledge of Messrs. F»-anklin Cloyes and bn^hers, 

 to their difFarent places ot destination, often car- 

 rying 4500 lbs., besides the wagon, to Natick, a 

 distimce of about eii^ht miles from the led-ic, 

 over a somewhat hilly road. The nroceeds of the 

 above five weeks' work was something over $50,00. 

 there beinf much bad weather and soft travelling. 

 All of the°above teams are in the finest working 



order. , , ^. 



Now if the above statements and calculations 

 are correct, we have the following result, viz : 

 that a pair of horses can be kept for about 37i per 

 cent. less than a pair of oxen, and will perform, on 

 an average, at least, 37i per cent, more labor. 



It must be borne in mind that oxen cannot be 

 kept at hard labor and high feed more than two 

 years, before they will lose their appetite and 

 streno-th, which can only be regained by a whole 

 summer's good pasture and perfect freedom from 

 labor. The cost of shoeing is nearly as much for 

 oxen as for horses. No domestic animal is more 

 beneficial to man, under certain circumstances, 

 than the horse, and there are none which have suf- 



fered more from his cruelty. In all ages of the 

 world, and in all stages of civilization and barbar- 

 ity, he has been his esteemed favorite. To the 

 shame of civilized men be it said, that the savage 

 has ever been the kindest master. It is not un- 

 common to see some very professedly pious people, 

 f )r the sake of five paltry dollars, dispose of a faith- 

 ful old servant to some vagabond to be abused in 

 the most shameful manner, and all this without the 

 least compunction ; such people may possess great 

 piety, but it is not so great as their avarice. In 

 times of danger and distress what more faithful 

 and efficient friend 1 And it is then that we can in 

 some measure appreciate the feelings of Shake- 

 speare's Richard the Third, when his kingdcmi was 

 considered to be of the lesser value. 



Yours truly, M. M. Fiske. 



Framingham, April 2, 1853. 



Remarks. — Many thanks, friend Fiske, for the 

 above excellent article. Your declaration in the 

 outset, that you could not better employ your lei- 

 sure than in giving expression to your thoughts on 

 this subject, was correct. We have no doub| thou- 

 sands will be influenced by these opinions. Let us 

 have more of them on other topics. 



GRAFTING. 



At a meeting of several gentlemen of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, on the 29th of January, the sub- 

 ject discussed was "TAe Cultivation of (he Pear." 

 The discussion is pretty fully reported by Mr Ho- 

 vey in his Magazine. Mr. Walker said, "great 

 errors were committed in grafting trees ; some 

 persons took off the whole top of a large tree, and 

 then large quantities of suckers are thrown out 

 below the graft ; many of his friends had cut them 

 off as fast as they appeared ; the consequence was 

 that the grafts failed, or the trees died. Thus, he 

 said, it would always be; for if you continue to 

 bleed trees every week they cannot live." 



These remarks apply to the apple, as well as 

 pear tree. We believe the practice of cutting off 

 the entire top of an apple tree at once, a bad one. 

 It leaves a large amount of vigorous roots with 

 nothing to balance them ; nothing to receive the 

 great flow of sap which the roots are constantly 

 sending up. The tree, then, in order to equalize 

 its powers, throws out great numbers of suckers 

 — these are cut off, and another set is started, and 

 the struggle goes on between the tree and the man 

 with the jack-knife, until the tree knocks under 

 and dies. If any trees survive this operation, it 

 must be attributed to the kindness and persistence 

 of nature, and not to any discernment of the ope- 

 rator. 



Remedy for the Onion Worm. — "A Farmer's 

 Daughter," in the Maine Farmer, says the com- 

 nion poppy growing among the onions will pre- 

 vent attacks of the worm. When the poppy 

 plants become too numerous or strong, pull them 

 up and leave the uprooted stalks on the bed. 



