78-2 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



Chap. III. 



Choice of Stock for a Farm. 



4826. The stocking of a farm may be considered as including live stock, implements, 

 servants, and seed. A considerable portion of a farmer's capital is employed in manures, 

 tillages, labour, &c. ; but a farm being once engaged, the above are the only descriptions 

 of stock which admit of a choice. 



Sect. I. Choice of Live Stock. 



4827. The animals required hy a farmer are of two kinds ; such as are employed to 

 assist in labour ; and such as are used to convert the produce of the farm into food, or 

 other disposable commodities. 



SuBSECT. 1. Live Stock for the Purposes of Labour. 



4828. The animals of labour used in British farming are exclusively the horse and the 

 ox. Much difference of opinion formerly prevailed, as to which of these two animals 

 should be preferred ; and the preference has generally been given by speculative writers 

 to the ox, and by practical farmers to the horse. Lord Kaimes in the last century, and 

 Lord Somerville in the present, may be considered the principal advocates for the ox. 

 To their arguments, and to all otliers, the following objections have been stated by the 

 able author of the supplement to the 6th edition of The Gentleman Farmer ; and they 

 may be considered as conveying the sentiments, and according with the practice, of all 

 the best informed and most extensive British farmers. 



4829. The first objection to oxen is, that they are unfit for the various labours of modern husbandry, 

 for travelling on hard roads in particular, for all distant carriages, and generally for every kind of 

 work which requires despatch : and what sort of work often does not in this variable climate ? A great 

 part of a farmer's work is indeed carried on at home ; and it may still be thought that this may be done 

 by oxen, while one or more horse teams are employed in carrying the produce to market, and bringing 

 home manure and fuel. But it is unnecessary to appeal to the author of The Wealth of Nations, to prove 

 the impracticability of this division of labour, unless upon very large farms ; and even on these tlie 

 advantages of such an arrangement are at best extremely problematical. The different kinds of farm- 

 work do not proceed at tlie same time ; but every season, and even every cliange of weather, demands 

 the farmer's attention to some particular employment, rather than to others. When his teams are 

 capable of performing every sort of work, he brings them all to bear for a time upon the most important 

 labours of every season ; and when that is despatched, or interrupted by unfavourable weather, the less 

 urgent branches are speedily executed by the same means. This is one cause, more important perhaps 

 than any other, why oxen have ceased to be employed; for even ploughing, which they can perform 

 better than any other kind of work, is scarcely ever going forward all the year j and for some months in 

 winter, the weather often prevents it altogether. 



4830. Another objection is, that an ox team capable of performing the work of two Irorses, even such 

 kind of work as they can perform, consumes the produce of considerably more land than the horses. If 

 this be the case, it is of no great importance, either to the farmer or the community, whether the land be 

 under oats, or under herbage and roots. The only circumstance to be attended to here is, the carcase of 

 the ox: the value of this, in stating the consumption of produce, must be added to the value of his 

 labour. He consumes, from his birth till he goes to the shambles, the produce of a certain number of acres 

 of land ; the return he makes for this is so much beef, and so many years' labour. The consumption of 

 produce must therefore be divided between these two articles. To find the share that should be allotted 

 to each, the first thing is to ascertain how many acres of grass and roots would produce the same weight 

 of beef from an ox, bred and reared for beef alone, and slaughtered at three or four years old. What 

 remains has been consumed in producing labour. The next thing is to compare this consumption with 

 that of the horse, which produces nothing but labour. By this simple test, the question, viewing it upon 

 a broad national ground, must evidently be determined. Every one may easily make such a calculation 

 suited to the circumstances of his farm ; none that could be offered would apply to every situation. But 

 it will be found, that if even three oxen were able to do the work of two horses, the advantages in this 

 point of view would still be on the side of the horses ; and the first objection applies with undiminished 

 force besides. 



4831. The money-price of the horse and ox, it is evident, is merely a temporary and incidental circum- 

 stance, which depends upon the demand. A work ox may be got for less than half the price of a horse, 

 because there is little or no demand for working oxen ; while the demand for horses by manufactures, 

 commerce, pleasure, and war, enhances the price of farm-horses, as well as of the food they consume. 

 Those who wish to see horses banished from all sorts of agricultural labour, would do well to consider 

 where they are to be reared for the numerous wants of the other classes of society. Besides, if two oxen 

 must be kept for doing the work of one horse, it ought to be foreseen, that though beef may be more 

 abundant than at present, there will be a corresponding deficiency in the production of mutton and wool. 

 A greater portion of the arable land of the country must be withdrawn from yielding the food of man 

 directly, and kept under cattle crops, which, however necessary to a certain extent for preserving the 

 fertility of the soil, do not return human food, on a comparison with corn crops, in so great a proportion 

 as that of one to six from any given extent of land of the same quality. 



4832. The de?nandfor oxen is confned almost evert/ where to the shambles ; and by the 

 improvements of modern husbandry, they are brought to a state of profitable maturity at 

 an early age. No difference in price at setting to work, no increase of weight while 

 working, no saving on the value of the food consumed, can ever make it the interest 

 of tillage farmers generally to keep oxen as formerly, till they are eight or ten years old. 

 They judiciously obtain the two products from different kinds of animals, each of them 

 from the kind which is best fitted by nature to afford it, the labour from the horse, 

 and the beef alone from the ox. And though the price of the horse is almost wholly 

 sunk at last, during the period of his labour he has been paying a part of it every year 

 to a fund, which, before his usual term expires, becomes sufficiently large to indemnify 

 his owner. The ox, on the other hand, is changed three or four times during the same 



