116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCT. 11, in* 



VALUE OF OXEN. 

 We find in the Mississippi Valley Farmer, the 

 following extracts from an address by the late 

 President Madison, before an Agricultural Society 

 in Virginia ; 



" I cannot liut consider it as an error in our hus- 

 bandry, that oxen are too little used in the place 

 of horses. Every fair comparison of the expense 

 of the two animals, favors a preference of the ox. 

 But the circumstance particularly recommending 

 him, is, that he can be supported when at work, by 

 grass and liay ; while the horse requires grain, 

 and much of it. But will not the ox himself when 

 at work require grain food as well as the horse ? 

 Certainly much less, if any. Judging from my 

 own observation, I should say, that a plenty of 

 good grass, or good hay, will suffice without grain, 

 where the labor is neither constant nor severe. 

 But I feel entire confidence in saying, that a double 

 set of oxen alternately at work, and therefore lialf 

 the time at rest, might be kept in good plight with- 

 out other food than a plenty of good grass or good 

 liay. And as this double set would double the 

 supply of beef, tallow and leather, a set-off is found 

 in that consideration for a double consumption of 

 that kind of food. 



The objections generally made to the ox, are — 

 1. That he is lees tractable than the horse. 2. 

 That he does not bear heat aa well. 3. That he 

 does not answer for the single plow used in our 

 corn-fields. 4. That he is slower in his move- 

 ments. 5. That he is less fit for carrying the 

 produce of the farm to market. 



The first objection is certainly founded in mis- 

 take. Of the two animals, the ox is the more do- 

 cile. In all countries where the ox is the ordina- 

 ry draught animal, his docility is proverbial. His 

 intractability, where it exists, has arisen from an 

 occasional use of him only, with long and irregu- 

 lar intervals, during which, the habit of discipline 

 being broken, a new one is to be formed. 



The second objection has aa little foundation. 

 The constitution of the ox accommodates itself as 

 readily as that of the horse, to diflTerent climates. 

 Not only in ancient Greece and Italy, but through- 

 out Asia, as presented to us in ancient history, the 

 ox and the plow are associatedj At this day, in 

 the warm parts of India and China, the ox, not the 

 horse, is in the draught service. [n every part of 

 India the ox always appears, even in the train of 

 her armies. And in the hottest parts of the West 

 Indies, the ox is employed in hauling weighty pro- 

 duce to the sea-ports. The mistake here, as in the 

 former case, has arisen from the effect of an occa- 

 sional employment only, with no other than green 

 food. The fermentation of this in the animal, 

 heated by the weather, and fretted by the disci- 

 pline, will readily account for his sinking under 

 his exertions ; when food even, much lees dry, 

 with a sober habit of labor, would have no ten- 

 dency. 



Tlie third objection also, is not a solid one. 

 The ox, by a proper harness, can be used singly 

 as well as the horse, between the rows of Indian 

 corn, and equally so used for other purposes. Ex- 

 perience may safely be appealed to on this point. 

 In the fourth place it is alleged he is slow in 

 his movements. This is true, but in a less degree 

 than is often taken for granted. Oxen that are 

 well chosen for their form, are not worked after 

 the age of about eight years, (the age at which 

 they are b9»t fitted for beef,) not worked loo many 



together, and are suitably matched, may be kept to 

 nearly as quick a step as the horse. 



The last objection has most weight. The ox is 

 not as well adapted as the horse for road service, 

 especially for long trips. In common roads, which 

 are often soft, and sometimes suddenly become so, 

 the form of his foot and the shortness of his leg, 

 are disadvantages; and on roads frozen or turn- 

 piked, the roughness of the surface in the former 

 case, and its hardness in both cases, are inconve- 

 nient to his cloven hoof. But where the distance 



hundred pounds or more, and he is then placed 

 the full length of his chain from the manger, wh 

 is filled with provender, and he cannot appruacli 

 eat without drawing the weight after liiin. 

 this manner he soon accustoms himself to move 

 load, and in the course of a fortnight, he will pr 

 ably be tamed without further trouble." 



to market is not great, where the varying state of 

 the roads and the weather can be consulted, and 

 where the road service is in less proportion to the 

 farm service, the objection is almost deprived of 

 its weight. In cases where it most applies, its 

 weight is diminished by ihi; consideration, that a 

 much greater proportion of service on the farm 

 may be done by oxen than is commonly done, and 

 that the expense of shoeing them is little different 

 from that of horses." 



The editor of the Farmer adds : 

 I " The value of the ox for labor is much increas- 

 ed by substituting the collar and traces for the 

 common wooden yoke and bows. The horse col- 

 lar reversed, or turned the bottom up, makes an ex- 

 act fit for the neck of the ox, if it be made of a 

 suitable size. We have been assured by those 

 who have adopted this method of gearing, that 

 it lias with them a decided preference over the 

 common method. The following are some of the 

 advantages : Whether the oxen be geared singly 

 or in pairs, they travel with more ease to them- 

 selves ; and there is consequently an increase of 

 speed in travelling ; there is less liability to 

 chafe and gall, and what many would consider 

 the most important advantage, there is an addition 

 to the strength of draft of at least ten per cent. 



On farms where oxen have not been already 

 employed, the young steers may bo very readily 

 broken in to work by having an old steady horse 

 put before them. We cannot, however, but advert 

 to a common practice, which, though prevalent 

 chiefly among small farmers, is yet by no means 

 unusual on many larger concerns — of pairing hor- 

 ses or mules together at the same work with oxen, 

 which, of all the preposterous customs ever sanc- 

 tioned by ignorance, seems the most absurd. A 

 sluggish ox is thus sometimes coupled with an ac- 

 tive horse ; at first, the latter exhausts his strength, 

 but at length, finding his advantage in moderating 

 his pace, he adopts the slow step of the former, 

 and having once acquired the habit, it soon be- 

 comes fixed, and he sufiers great injury in his val- 

 ue. A sinfjle horse is in that manner often added, 

 cither as a wheeler or a leader to a pair of oxen, 

 from an idea that such a mode of draught is more 

 handy than when oxen are employed alone, but it 

 is a custom which no plea can really excuse. 



There is a very simple mode adopted by many 

 fo.'eign farmers, to induce obstinate steers to take 

 kindly to their work, without either loss of time in 

 attendance or unnnecessary force, and merely by 

 acting upon their appetite. The animal is har- 

 nessed, and fastened by the collar to a cord or 

 chain, which runs in a ring, to which a weight is 

 appended at the manger, which he can approach 

 or retire from at pleasure. Another weight is 

 then hung to his traces, by the centre of the splin- 

 ter-bar, and rests upon the ground, passing through 

 a pulley upon which it moves. The weight to 

 which the steer is thus attached, may be about a 



WHEAT CULTURE. 

 By the aid of chemistry, the wheat-growon 

 France have succeeded in doubling the produc 

 wheat in that kingdom within the last ten ye 

 and now annually harvest more wheat than 

 grown in all the islands of Great Britain and in 

 United States. Within the same period, the 

 nual crop of wheat in this State (New York,) 

 diminished not far from 30 per cent. 



Vegetable charcoal has been the most us 

 agent employed by French wheat-growers to n 

 vate their exhausted soil, prevent rust, and imp 

 alike both the quality and quantity of the c 

 With our still abundant forests, this fertilizer 

 be obtained here at probably one-fifth, if not 

 tenth of its cost in France. 



That our farmers may not be asked to 

 thing blind-folded, we will try to explain, in a 

 words, the reasons why this substance was rei 

 mended by the French chemists to the attentic 

 the wheat-growers of that kingdom. 



The decomposition of vegetable and animal 

 ter constantly taking place on the surface of 

 earth, disengages a large quantity of volatile 

 monia, which is conveyed by the constontly 

 ing atmosphere wherever it may be needed as 

 for plants. According to Brande, water at 5( 

 grees, takes up 670 times its bulk of volatile 

 monia, and thus it is that showers of rain I 

 large quantities of this valuable manure ti 

 earth. The heat of a summer sun quickly ei 

 rates the water and volatilizes the ammonia, 

 away it goes again into the air. Charcoal h 

 strong affinity for this gas, of which it will al 

 90 times its bulk. Spread upon a field of gro 

 wheat, it imbibes a large portion of the ainrn 

 that falls with the falling dews and showers: 

 becomes fixed, and is made to enrich wheat 

 at the expense of other portions of the vege 

 world. To make good plump, rich wheal, it 

 hv fattened like a lean pig, judiciously fed in ! 

 If this be not done, like the wild alligator i 

 al the southwest, our best varieties of wheat 

 go back to what they were before cultivate 

 improved by man. There are other volatile 

 besides simple ammonia and some of its compc 

 afloat in the atmosphere, which being solu 

 water fall in rain, and may be absorbed in cha^ 

 It is known to wheat-growers that wheat U 

 liable to be struck by rust during the early f 

 lion of the berry, than at any other period, 

 also known to physiologists that the drall upc 

 vital energies of the plant during tlie matu; 

 the seed, is far greater than at any other 

 It is also believed that the large quantity of i 

 niacal and other stimulating salts taken in 

 plant by their excess during the warm sh 

 when the berry is growing and ripening, c ! 

 the stalk to burst open, its juices to exude, a I 

 often fatal shrinking of the seed. The 1.1 

 chemists having witnessed this truly lameil 

 blighting of human food, suggested the use of? 

 coal to absorb the excess of these useful ir i' 



