36 THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 



and improper crossings that has kept us so long from distin- 

 guishing the most valuable kinds." Mr. Culley wrote in 1807, 

 and since his day many improvements have taken place in 

 the breeds of cattle ; and experience has proved that the im- 

 proved Yorkshire cow, in which the characters of the Durham 

 and Holderness are mingled, unites the two qualities in high 

 perfection. 



Formerly, the labouring ox, or steer, was greatly employed 

 for the purposes of draught, in the cart or at the plough ; and 

 on some large farms teams of oxen are still maintained. In 

 North and South Devon, the greater part of the agricultural 

 labour is performed by oxen and ox teams are common 

 in Sussex and Herefordshire. Four good steers will do 

 as much work, either at the plough or in the cart, as three 

 moderate horses. They are worked in yokes, and require to 

 be shod, in order that the hoof may be defended, otherwise 

 inflammation would soon ensue, and the beast would be ulti- 

 mately crippled. The hoof being bifid, the shoes are accord- 

 ingly adapted; and they should be thin and light. In 

 Devonshire, oxen are generally put to farm labour when they 

 are about two years old, and they are kept to work for three 

 or four years ; they are then grazed or fed on hay for eight or 

 ten months, and in that time are ready for the market. On 

 the continent the ox is most extensively used for the cart and 

 the plough, as it was in ancient times ; but in England the 

 great demand of the ox for food (and that of the best quality, 

 rendering attention to breeding and feeding of paramount 

 importance), the slowness of the ox, and its inferiority as a 

 beast of draught, compared with the horse the improvement 

 in our working class of horses and the greater ease with 

 which the latter are trained and managed, all appear to com- 

 bine in rendering the services of the ox far less necessary 

 than they would otherwise be, and have been, and still are, 

 on the continent. A farmer who can sell four or five oxen 

 for a good profit, at two years old, will not keep them for the 

 plough, especially when two horses will do the work of three 

 or four oxen, and that for many years ; yet, in large farms, it 

 may be advantageous to keep a few oxen, at least for the 

 lighter work, so as to save the time of the horses, which 

 might be devoted to more important labour; and this the 

 rather, as the keep of the working ox is less expensive than 

 that of the working cart-horse. 



