USE OF OXEX. 145 



For the speed of an ox-team in the ploiio-h we mio;ht rely on the 

 numerous certificates of committees for the last twenty years, in 

 which our agricultural annals abound, from Soston in the north to 

 Baltimore at least going south. These testify in innumerable cases 

 to their ploughing live or six inches deep, an eighth of an acre tho- 

 roughly well, at the rate of an acre in four hours. Making the most 

 liberal allowance, however, for the favourable circumstances under 

 which the work has been done at this rate, and it may still be safely 

 assumed that a yoke of oxen, well trained, will turn over more than 

 an acre of strong land in eight hours. 



All that we have contended for is more than confirmed by the fol- 

 lowing testimony taken from a very interesting letter from Governor 

 Hill, dated 7th December, 1843, on the use of oxen in the lumberino 

 business in Maine. He says — "My own experience in this matter 

 is quite recent, and of course limited. I have at this time cattle jf 

 my own raising, which, having been taught to step quick, and having 

 worked in the same team with horses, will side by side travel as fast 

 and plough as much in a day as the same number of horses. A pair 

 of these oxen will turn over with a plough that carries twelve inches 

 of the last year's corn or potatoe ground, or easy stubble land, from 

 one and a half to two acres in a day, working eight hours, four in 

 the foren.oon and four in the afternoon. Oxen well fed v.'ith hay and 

 a portion of Indian corn or meal, will in the heat of summer stand it 

 to work daily from eight to ten hours." 



At the Exhibition of the Maryland Agricultural Society in 1823, 

 {quorum pars fui). in the view of hundreds of spectators, an ox-team 

 started in competition with five horse-teams, and was the second in 

 completing an equal quantity of ground, and would have been the 

 first if the horse-team had cleared out the middle furrow ; but sup- 

 posing that when ready to start the horse has a little the advantage 

 of foot, it is to be considered that for small jobs and short bouts his 

 competitor can be more quickly hitched up, and the work despatched 

 by the time the horse would be geared: — such cases as we have 

 stated abound in all the accounts of the proceedinofs of agricultural 

 societies. A writer in the Memoirs of the Massachusetts AgTicultural 

 Society, speaking to a community who neither could nor would be 

 deceived on a matter so well understood by, and so deeply interestino- 

 to them, says — " The principal argument of the advocates for the 

 cviltivation by horses in Mar}'land seems to be the superior speed of 

 the horse. Now tliis must proceed from an imperfrd traininir of the 

 cattle. With us our cattle will plough an acre of ground much belter, 

 and in as short a time, as a pair of horses would do it, unless thev 

 can trot their horses in the plough * s* they will get in a ton of hay 

 in as short a time." Here we are well persuaded the sagacious 

 writer hits the nail on the head, w^hen he suggests that the objection 

 on the score of speed must arise from an ^''imperfect trninini^ of the 

 •'lie.'''' He must possess an imperfect knowledge of the dirierence 

 .;tween ?np h-bits of the New England and the Southern plouohman 

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