ECONOMY OF FARMING. 45 



12. Hence is clear the necessity of providing a good, strong, and well- 

 fed team, which costs more at the first, and must he better fed ; but which 

 also gives a greater profit by its greater labor, and by the saving in the 

 number of beasts and men, than a weak, small, and poorly fed one. 



Where the breed of the beasts of labor is small, but the soil heavy nnd binding, 

 there indeed it is necessary to use 4 or 6 or more span before the plough ; we often 

 find 4. 6, and yet more yoked together, even when the beasts are large and strong, 

 or the soil easy and mellow ; and then there is a waste of power, and greater means 

 are applied to the attainment of the object, than are necessary. In many countries 

 it belongs to respectal>ility, and is thought to be a mark of being well oftj to plough 

 with and drive 4 stout horses, or 4 and 6 great oxen, and it is considered mean°to 

 have only 2 ; so that for the sake of this satisfaction, one is contented to sacrifice a 

 portion of the profits of his farm. There are few kinds of work which cannot be per- 

 formed with 2 good beasts of draught, either horses or oxen. Such exceptions are, 

 the breaking up of clover, or those lands which have lain fallow for a number of years, 

 in clayey soil, and the driving the plough to an unusual depth. All other kinds of 

 work can be performed with 2 span. When it is thought that 4 beasts paired work 

 as quick as 2, because each one has to overcome less resistance, this is an error. The 

 4-span goes somewhat quicker, it is true, in the furrow, but does not double so 

 quickly ; and since the turning about of a 4-spanned team needs more time than a 

 double span, so the quickness of the former, compared with the latter, is. on the whole, 

 by no means greater ; it is often less. Arthur Young laid a wager with Lord 

 Egremont that, with 2 oxen and one man, he would plough more in a day than his 

 competitor could do with 6 oxen and two men ; and he won (Begtrup A. a. C. II. Th. 

 39) ; though we would not maintain, that in all circumstances, a person with 2 oxen 

 would be in a situation to plough up a greater extent of ground to the same depth. 

 Mr. Young probably had a pair of ten year old, well-trained, and very powerful 

 beasts, an able, trusty man, well acquainted with his oxen, with a suitably construct- 

 ed, sharp, cutting plough, whilst his competitor had a less skilful ploughman, or a 

 badly made plough. The turning about of a 6-span, on account of the greater cir- 

 cuit that must be made, requires much time ; and with 6 beasts, their stopping to 

 urine must be double that in the case of two only. 



13. If a man has a pair of good horses in ploughing, and the plough is 

 well made, and conveniently arranged, he will plough, in a moderately 

 tight soil, in 9 hours one yoke (== 1.422 acres), if the plough goes no 

 deeper than 4 or 5 inches, and the furrow-slices are not made narrower 

 than 10 or 11 inches, and the beds are 12 to 14-furrowed. If the soil is 

 binding, he can only plough ^ of a yoke. 



14. In like circumstances, one may plough in the same time with an 

 equal number of oxen i to i less. 



If a person labors with a change of oxen, he might, as may be easily conceived, 

 plough as much in a day, as with horses, indeed probably more ; since if he changes 

 the ox-teams once in the day, he could labor more time with the two teams than if 

 the same team were kept yoked up through the whole forenoon and afternoon ; and 

 at least there are 10 hours in which one works with two teams. Since the same are 

 more rested they are fresher and stronger. 



If the change is three times, then a man labors from 12 to 14 hours, and ploughs 

 somewhat more than with one pair of horses. But that with a given number of oxen, 

 one must plough more in a given time if he works them with changes of teams instead 

 of one team and without change, we need not believe ; much more certain is it that 

 a man ploughs more if he makes each team work 9 hours, than if he works them only 

 4 to 5 hours; though in this time he is somewhat fresher. The advantage of tlie 

 change of oxen consists in the sparing of men and in the better condition of the 

 working-oxen, on leaving off; since if the team is not changed the man labors at the 

 plough together with the driver only 8 or 9 hours in the day ; whereas, with the 

 change of team, the oxen are brought to them and both continue in the field from 

 early dawn till nightfall, during which time the plough is constantly going. It 

 eeems to me, therefore, that this saving may be over-balanced by the greater neces- 

 sity of working-oxen, even if I alloWf that the beasts after the time of ploughing may 



