74 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



not altogether, as an ally of man in his contests with his 

 neighbors, its most substantial use has been in the peaceful 

 arts. As pack animal and drawer of the plough, the ox 

 appears in general to have come into use before its swifter 

 companion. The displacement of horned cattle has been due 

 to the fact that their structure and habits make them much 

 less fit for arduous and long-continued labor than the horse 

 has been found to be. The cloven foot, because of its 

 division, is weak. It cannot sustain a heavy burden. Even 

 with the unincumbered weight of the body of the animal, the 

 feet are apt to become sore in marches which the heavily 

 mounted horse endures unharmed. Centuries of experience 

 have shown that while the ox is an excellent animal for 

 drawing a plough in a stubborn soil, and is well adapted to 

 pulling carriages where the burden is heavy and the speed is 

 not a matter of importance and the distance not great, the 

 creature is too slow for the greater part of the work which 

 the farmer needs to do. The pace which they can be made to 

 take in walking is not more than half as great as that of a 

 quick-footed horse moving in the same gait ; and the ox is 

 practically incapable, because of its weak feet, of keeping up 

 a trot on any ordinary road. But for the fact that an aged 

 ox may be used for beef, they would doubtless long since 

 have ceased to serve us as draught animals. As it is, with 

 the o-rowing money value of the laborer's time, this slow- 

 moving creature is steadily and rather rapidly disappearing 

 from our farms. This change, indeed, is one of the most 

 indicative of all those now occurring in our agriculture. It 

 is an excellent example of the operations which the increase 

 in the workman's pay is bringing into our civilization. 



The natural advantages of the horse for the use of man 



