[ ns ] 



hotwithilanding all thefe advantage?, they 

 are ufed in very few places ; and fome 

 whole counties, that not many years ago 

 Scarcely pofleffed a plow-horfe, now have 

 not a Tingle ox. This fcems very extraor- 

 dinary, and has, by many, been elleemed 

 as a itrong proof, that horfes are really pre- 

 ferable. 



But I think the change is to be ac- 

 counted for without this fuppofition. I at- 

 tribute it to the price live cattle have 

 yielded of late years. It is well known, 

 that the. regular couife of bulinefs in the 

 ox counties ufed to be, to keep three fetts 

 of hearts ; one of young cattle that were 

 coming into work ; the teams ; and fatten- 

 ing cattle, that had been worked three 

 years. But when cattle came to be fo 

 very dear, as to be bought lean for near /as 

 much as they fold for when fat-, the ox 

 farmers were tempted to fell their young 

 flock before they plowed them ; or at 

 leaft to throw them directly to fattening, 

 that their high value might come in the 

 fooner. And as horfes, once bought, re- 

 quired no annual addition, they by degrees 

 increafed with all poor farmers, to enable 

 them to fell their oxen at high prices. The 

 great decreafe of the ufe of oxen dur- 

 ing the period of live cattle felling fo very 

 high, gives fome reafon to fuppofe this the 



Vol. IV. L caufe 



