68 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



they will not back a cart or sled with as large a load as 

 they can draw forwards, forgetting that much pains have 

 been taken to learn them to draw" well forward, but none to 

 learn them to push backw^ard. To remedy the occasion of 

 this thumping, and the delay, which is always disagreeable, 

 as soon as I have learned my steers to be handy, as it is 

 called, and to draw^ forw^ard, I place them on a cart where the 

 land is descending in a small degree. In this situation they 

 will soon learn with ease to back it ; then I place them on 

 level land, and exercise them there; then I learn them to 

 back a cart up land a little rising: the cart having no load 

 in it thus far. When I have learned them to stand up to the 

 tongue as they ought and back an empty cart, I next either 

 put a small weight in the cart, or take them where the land 

 rises faster, which answers the same purpose. Thus in a 

 few days they can be learned to back well, and know how to 

 do it, w^hich by a little use afterwards they "vvill never forget. 

 This may appear of little consequence to some, but when it 

 is remembered how frequently we w^ant to back a load when 

 we are at work with our cattle, and how commodious it often 

 is to have our cattle back well, w^hy should we not learn 

 them for the time w^hen we w^ant them thus to lay out their 

 strength ? Besides, it saves the blows and vexation often 

 encountered, which is considerable when one is in haste. 

 It is a merciful course toAvards our brutes. I never consider 

 a pair of oxen well broke until they will back with ease any 

 reasonable load, and I would give a very considerable sum 

 more for a yoke of oxen thus tutored than for a yoke not 

 thus trained.' 



Oxen sometimes contract a bad habit of pulling or hauling 

 against each other ; and sometimes crowd each other, so as 

 to render them almost entirely useless as laborers. It is said 

 that by turning them out to feed in the yoke they will learn 

 to move in concert, and thus be broken of the habits of pull- 

 ing and crowding. 



In the Transactions of the Society of Arts the following 

 mode of training oxen to the draught is recommended : ' Put 

 a broad strap round their necks, fasten one end to a large 

 log of wood ; permit the ox to drag it about as he feeds in 

 his pasture, before he is put in harness, by which his docility 

 is much forwarded.' If a yoke of oxen were fastened to a 

 heavy loaded sled or drag, placed in a pasture, and the oxen 

 secured in such a manner that they could not cast or injure 

 themselves, and the load were so heavy that they must act 



