]014 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pakt III. 



liandled, to make them gentle : it prevents their hurting themselves by skittishness and sudden frights; 

 and they are much easier broken at the proper age, and become docile and harmless, having nothing of 



tamm^-. ^^^^ viciousness which is so 



853 xA-V J^^ik. B^^^i\ commonly complained ot In 



these animals. They may be 

 broken at three years old^ but 

 should never be permitted to 

 do much hard work till four, as 

 they are thus secured from 

 being hurt by hard labour, till 

 they have acquired strength 

 enough td bear it without in- 

 jury. An expert breeder of 

 these animals found, that feed- 

 ing them too well wliile young, 

 was not only incurring a much 

 larger expense than was any 

 way necessary, but also made 

 them wonderfully nice and de- 

 licate in their appetites ever 

 after. He therefore contented 

 himself with giving them food 

 enough to prevent their losing 

 flesh, and to keep up their 

 growth without palling their 

 appetites with delicacies, or making them over-fat : he also took care to defend them from the injuries of 

 the weather by allowing them stable-room, and good litter to sleep on, besides causing them every day to 

 be well rubbed down with a hard wisp of straw by an active groom. This was scarcely ever omitted, 

 particularly in cold, raw, wet weather, when they were least inclined to exercise themselves. When 

 three years old, mules are proper for use. 



6772. The shoe for the mule is by some made not unlike the bar shoe before, and the 

 common shoe behind ; by some both fore and hind shoes are made to project considerably 

 beyond the toe, under an idea of increasing tlie points of contact with the ground : but 

 the most usual shoe is one formed between the usual horse and ass shoe. 



Chap. IV. 



Neat or Horned Cattle. B6s L. ; Mammalia Pecora L., and Huviinaleee Cuv. Betes 

 a come, Fr. ; Vieh, Ger. ; Ganado, Span. ; and Bestiame, Ital. 



677S. I'he neat or horned cattle used in agricvlture are included under two species of 

 ^6s ; the B. Taurus or ox, and the B. /mbulus or buffalo ; the latter less used in 

 Britain than on the Continent and in other countries. These animals are more univer- 

 sally used as beasts of draught and burden than the horse, and have the additional ad- 

 vantage of furnishing excellent food and other valuable products. Theje is scarcely a 

 country in which the ox or the buffalo is not either indigenous, or naturalised and culti- 

 vated ; while in many parts of the world the horse is either wanting, or reserved for the 

 purposes of war or the saddle. 



Sect. I. The Ox. Bos Taurus L. ; Ochs, Ger ; Banif, Fr. ; Bvei/, ^piiiJ:^}mnd 



Bue, Ital. " "* - 



6774. The male ox is the bull {Taureau, Fr. ; Stier, Ger. ; Toro, Span, and Ital.) and 

 the female the cow ( Vache, Fr. ; Kuh, Ger. ; and Vaca, Span, and Ital.). The bull and 

 cow inhabit various parts of the world, and, as already observed, are domesticated every 

 where. In most countries, hov.ever, they are the mere creatures of soil and climate, the 

 same attention in breeding and rearing that is bestowed on the horse being withheld ; the 

 natural habits little restrained or the form little improved for the purposes of milking, 

 fattening, or for labour. It is almost exclusively in Britain that this race of animals has 

 been ameliorated so as to present breeds for each of these purposes, far superior to what 

 are to be found in any other country. Notwithstanding this, however, much certainly 

 remains to be known regarding the nutriment afforded by different kinds of herbage and 

 roots ; the quantity of food consumed by different breeds, in proportion as well to their 

 weight at the time, as to the ratio of their increase ; and the propriety of employing large 

 or small animals in any given circumstances. Even with regard to the degrees of im- 

 ))rovenfient made by fatting cattle generally, from the consumption of a given weight of 

 roots or herbage, no great accuracy is commonly attempted ; machines for weighing the 

 cattle themselves and their food, from time to time, not being yet in general use in any 

 part of Britain. We shall consider this valuable family as to variety, criteria, breeding, 

 earing, feeding, working, fattening, and milking : the manufacture of milk will be 

 reated of in a succeeding chapter. 



SuBSECT. 1. Varieties and Breeds of the BvU. 



6775. The varieties of the wild ox arc the bonasus and the bison {fig. 112.) ; the first with a long mane, 

 and the last with a gibbous back. They inhabit the woods in Madagascar and many other countries of 

 the East : and the bison is even said toTje found in Poland, 



