ESSAY 



ON THE 

 ADVANTAGES TO BE DERIVED FROM A MORE EXTENDED 



USE OF OXEN 



IN THE 



HUSBANDRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



BY J. S. SKINNER, Esq. 



So depp is the conviction of the great saving which would be ac- 

 complished by individuals, adding immensely, in the aggregate, to 

 our national wealth, by a more extended use of oxen in lieu of horses 

 in the general labours of husbandry, that the occasion is here em- 

 braced to present the views by which that conviction has been 

 established, and the editor feels persuaded that he might venture to 

 introduce these views, on the score of their intrinsic importance, 

 even though the subject to which they relate were not so naturally 

 associated, as it seems to be, with a work on the diseases of cattle. 



That "a farming district may be judged of by its working oxen,, 

 as safely as by its barns or its corn-fields," has been laid down as 

 an axiom by a Committee of Farmers, — working men in the true 

 sense of the word, — of Massachusetts, at an exhibition where no 

 premium was oftered for horses, expressly on the ground that " it was 

 believed that the interest of the farmer is promoted by substitutino- 

 the ox for the horse, /or most purposes, as he is fed with less expense, 

 is more patient of labour, and is more valuable when his service is 

 ended." This declaration in favour of the ox for " most purposes''"' is 

 at once explicit and broad, and might seem to settle the question; 

 but there are considerations arising out of ditference of soil and cli- 

 mate, which obviously demand a comparison of circumstances to see 

 how far that system admits of general application, which is here 

 proclaimed on the best authority to be expedient throughout New 

 England : and this brings us at once to the most formidable objections 

 to the use of oxen — their alleged incapacity to withstand, when labour' 

 ing, the heat of more southern latitudes, and their slowness of motion. 



As to New England, in addition to the evidence already quoted, 

 we may give here the answer of the venerable Josiah Quincy, now 

 President of the time-honoured Harvard University, to a letter once 



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