OX. 
pends upon ne as and breed, and theit a@ivity on their 
a two- ple -old ox is as worthlefs in 
An ox doe 
whatever farming horfes do, oxen (of a proper age and pro- 
perly managed) can do. On the road they are, beyond all 
ed ubt, equal to horfes, and at plough they are not inferior, 
except their work be very heavy. In heavy work they will 
not ftrive like horfes, but will, in defiance, keep their fteady 
pace. In this point of view, and in this only, oxen are un- 
equal to horfest Indeed he never worked oxen all the year 
round, as horfes are done, but he has always given them a 
month’s marfhing in the fpring, and they have generally had 
fome idle days in the winter ; their fodder, however, in this 
cafe, has been proportiona le. 
In the Rural Economy of Yorkfhire, the long agitated 
difpute about the ipenionty of oxen or horfes, as beafts of 
draught, may be confidered with fingular ciooreny But 
he is afraid even this county will not furnifh us {ufficient 
sires for final a 
m time immemorial, four or fix oxen 
alfo double, were the invariable 
foils, in alma every ftate, 
the road, bowev ver, that is to fay, in farm carri- 
t 
horfes at length ee them. 
horfe-teams now trave! upon the road; things which were 
formerly unknown in the countr 
ss Even the timber-carriers (an induftrious wary fet of men) 
continue toufe them ; though ae fole employment be upon 
the road. They not only find them able to ftand working 
every day, provided their feet do not fail them: but, what 
is much in their favour, they are found to ftand OP hours 
better than horfes yong in the fame pafture. An ox ina 
good pafture foon fills his belly, and lays himfelf aca to 
reft ; whereas a fhort fummer’s night {carcely affords a horfe 
time enough to fatisfy his hunger. 
Another advantage of oxen is here held out. In ftiff 
moft efpecially in going up fteep hills, 
ach 
Horfes, It is 
agreed, are fearful, and focn lofe their vane in a fteep flippery 
road; while oxen, where they are unable t oo aa to will 
always ftand their ground. Indeed, oxen feem to cen- 
ngere as deel neceflary in an ey hilly comic. 
“ If other f{pecies of animals adapted to the 
purpofe of seugte in the ifland, nor any one which could 
be naturalized to the climate, cart- horfes would be truly va- 
luable,; they being much e breed of faddle. 
horfes for the ‘gel aae of draught. 
o him evident, from the experience he 
{mall fhare of the attention paid to 
oxen, which now is beftowed onthe faeces of cart- oe oie ; 
animals equally powerful, more Se lefe eae equally 
adapted to the purpofes of hufbandry (if harneffed with 
eau judgment) ; lefs expentive in es an a attendance 5 
much more durable ; and infinitely more oe after they 
have finifhed their labours ;_ might be 
n ox is to draw the plow gh only fr ion “his ‘third to his 
tenth year, when it will be advifable to fatten and fell him, 
as being then of a better flefh than if he was kept longer. 
The age of this creature is known by his teeth and horns. 
The ef fore-teeth, which he fheds at the end of ten ae 
are replaced by others, larger, but not fo white; at fix 
months the teeth next to shots in the middle fall out, and 
that the growth and tredaing of the teeth are not affeGted 
by caftration, or th e of fexes. Nor is the fhedding 
of horns affe&ted by ‘either ; ; as both bull, ox, and cow, lote 
them alike at the end of three years ; and thefe alfo are re- 
aes by other horns, which, like the fecond teeth, remain ; 
x 
rft year, that 1 6 
pointed horns make their appearance nearly formed, {mooth, 
— 
impelle 
terminated by another button; an 
continue growing as long as the creature lives. 
tons become annular joints, digits are eafily diftinguifhed in 
the horn, and by which the age of the creature may he 
. eae known 3 counting a years for the point of the 
horn to tne firft jomt, and one year for each of the other in- 
tervals. See AGE of Neat Ca ttle. 
The writer of a late treatife on cattle fuggelts, that “as 
a labouring animal, for agricultural purpofes, he is, on the 
whole, far fuperior to the horfe. This important pofition has 
been fo repeatedly and irrefragably aah — it ought, at 
this period, to be fully fufficient to make affertion to be 
no otherwife ciproved than by a fair adduétion of a ee 
ee an he a we can produce, in the ox, 
weight h for the heavieft, with {peed faflicient For 
he lighteft ‘foils and thofe joined wih the higheft degree of 
docility and refolution, what would the hufbandman more ? 
Let him, under thefe oreaeiances make his calculation be- 
tween the value of thofe benefits to be derived from the la- 
bour of the horfe and the ox, taking into the account the lefs 
expenfive keep of the latter, even when corn-fed, and that 
the profits of breeding and training for fale the labouring ox 
would probably equal the fimilar tranfaétions with the horte.? 
It is added that the blundering oo publifhed by theo- 
dee advocates for ox- labour e ferved to miflead many, 
We have been 
orns 
qualities which render him fo totally unfit for the ee 
any otherwife than as a wretched fubftitute, and which af. 
fords the horfe fo manile® a euehe over him en of 
this defeription could only be advantag 3 for the cae 
of the field, i in times anterior t o the gre  apiee wens of 
rae and the prefent chara€ter of the Britifh ia OX, 
a dire@t reverfe of the picture.”’ may even g0 
ai and affert, without the {malleft impropriety, that w 
poffefs breeds of neat cattle ia this country, well quale, 
Tom, 
