USE OF OXEN. 165 



again at eight o'clock ; again at daylight; then at sunrise they are 

 ready for the labours of the day. This mode of feeding is considered 

 preferable, being fresher in small quantities, eaten more freely, and 

 less liable to ge^ under their feet, and be wasted. 



Carts beino- cheaper than Nvagons, and handier about the ordinary 

 business of a farm, are therefore to be desired. Different kinds of 

 bodies may be attached occasionally to one pair of wheels ; an open 

 one for hay, sheaves, &e., and a close one for fruit and vegetables. 

 The naked wheels are handy to haul spars, poles, and all kinds of 

 long timber on. In hitching a cart to the oxen, the tongue or spire 

 thereof passes into the ring of the ox-yoke, as far as the shoulder in 

 the tongue will permit; an iron instrument called a copes pin, resem- 

 bling the capital letter U, is put on the end of the tongue, embracing 

 it above and below, and the copes pin is inserted through the end of 

 the tongue and through the copes. This copes is for the purpose of 

 hitching the second yoke of oxen to, when necessary. (See drawing 

 on page 164.) 



Wherever oxen and yokes are used, chains become indispensable; 

 four of these, each ten feet long, with a hook in each end, or part of 

 them with a ring in one end and a hook at the other, are enough for 

 two or three yokes of oxen. 



The drawings opposite are necessary for a better understanding of 

 what has been said. 



Fig. 1 represents a cart-tongue hitched to a yoke, as in the act of 

 drawing; a is the copes pin, which goes through the tongue, and by 

 which the yoke draws ; b is the copes by which the second pair is 

 hitched, when necessarj''. 



Fior. 2, a stanchion and bows, by which cattle are secured at their 

 crib ; a, the cap lies flat on top of their neck ; the end of the bow at 

 b is sometimes like a button, and is put in the hole at c, and springs 

 into its place. 



At Fig. 3 is the model of a yoke for a middling sized pair of oxen. 

 Whole length, three and a half feet; distance of bow-holes, a to a, 

 twenty inches ; from b to b, in the clear, six and a half inches. The 

 bows being something of an oval form, and c to c being the greatest 

 swell, and where the ox's shoulders come, the staple e should be in 

 a direct line between, so that the strain will come right, in drawing: 

 d d may be flat keys or round pins of wood ; one in each bow is suffi- 

 cient. The stuff of which the bows are made must be at least one 

 and a half inches in diameter. 



There is no good reason why the ox should not be worked singly; 

 so might cows when not at the pail very well do the single ploughing, 

 and haul light loads in carts ; and it would be yet more economical 

 and expedient to spay and work heifers under certain circumstances. 

 In Spain and France it is a common practice. Every judicious farmer 

 will endeavour to get all possible remuneration for the certain expense 

 attendant U])on the keeping of everything that consumes the produce of 

 his land. Even the dog that eats what would keep a pig, besides guard- 



