RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



work prior to seventy-five years ago was the ox team. 

 Horses were little used for farm work, and so most of 

 the hauling of heavy loads was done with the two- 

 wheeled ox cart. Many of these were homemade and 

 often the axles were made from hickory. Practically 

 the only iron on many of the older carts was the tires. 

 When the body of this two-wheeled cart was fitted with 

 sloping racks extending many feet in all four direc- 

 tions, heavy loads of grain and hay could be hauled. 



In the earliest days all of the long-distance travel was 

 on horseback, as the bridle paths were the only high- 

 ways and horseback travel was the common means of 

 going from one settlement to another. When roads 

 became more common heavy loads of farm produce 

 were occasionally sent to the Sound at the south or the 

 Hudson River at the west by the slow but sturdy ox 

 teams. The extent to which the ox team came into use 

 is illustrated by the account given by a man now living, 

 whose uncle took an ox load of gun barrels from the 

 place of casting at Mount Riga to Harper's Ferry, sell- 

 ing his oxen at the end of the journey and making the 

 return trip on foot. 



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