USE OF OXEN. 155 



again at eig] t o'clock; again at daylight; then at sunrise they ara 

 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 gret under their feet, and be wasted. 



Carts being cheaper than wagons, 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, &c., 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 c^es 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.) 



V\"lierever oxen and yokes are used, chains become indispensable; 

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

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

 two or three yokes of oxen. 



The drawings opposite are necessar}' for a better understanding of 

 what has been said. 



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

 dravvino"; 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 necessarv. 



Fig. 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 lo c, 

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

 bows beinar somethingr of an oval form, and c to c heino" the oreatest 

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

 a direct line between, so that the strain will come rio-ht, in drawino-: 

 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 economica 

 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 upon the keeping of ere/*r,'//i/jjo- thai consumes the produce of 

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



