I 



OF FOREST-TREES. 289 



are lasting and profitable ; and then one might allow sufficient bordure for CHAP.Vir. 

 a mound of any thickness, which may be the first charge, and well sup- ^-'"'V"'**^ 

 ported and rewarded by the culture of the land thus inclosed. 



For example : suppose a man would take in five hundred acres of good 

 land, let the mounds be of the wildest ground, as fittest for wood : two 



" twelve of straw ; and on the days of rest, they range as they like in the straw-yards ; for 

 " it is to be observed, that they are not confined to hot stables, but have open sheds, under 

 " which they eat their cut provender, and are generally left to their choice, to go in and out. 

 " Under this management, as four oxen generally plough an acre a day, and do other work 

 " in proportion, there can be no doubt but their advantage is very great over horses, and 

 " the result to the public highly beneficial. 



" The oxen which are brought on in succession, run the first summer in the park, and in 

 " the leasows, and temporary straw-yards in the winter ; by which temporary straw-yards, I 

 " would have it understood, that they are made in different places, so that the manure which 

 " they make, may be as near to the spot where it is wanted as possible. 



" The forty oxen which go off are summered in the best pasture, and finished with tur- 



" nips the ensuing winter. The usual way has been to draw the turnips, and to give 



" them either stalled or in cribs placed in the yard, with plenty of straw to browse and lie 

 " upon : but last winter an experiment was tried, which answered extremely well, and 

 " will be again repeated next winter : this was, penning the oxen by day upon the turnip- 

 " land, in the manner that sheep are penned, with this only difference, that the turnips 

 " were thrown up into cribs, instead of being left to be trodden into the ground : and in the 

 " nights they were driven into a yard, with a temporary shed, well littered with rushes, 

 " fern, and leaves, and turnips and barley-straw given to them in cribs. They thrived 

 " very fast, and every one of them made at least eight loads of good muck in the night- 

 "yard, besides the benefit done in treading and dunging on the land in the day-time, 



"which was very great, the soil being very light. The result of the ox system is, that 



" charging the ox for his agistment the first year, for the value of the grass and turnips 

 " the last year, and putting what he has in three intermediate years, as an equivalent for 

 " his labour, after every allowance for risk, each ox will pay at least twenty per cent. 

 " profit. In what instance does a horse produce so much ? 



" I do not allow that the ox can be used on all soils ; upon a very stony soil he cannot : 

 " nor can the horse in all places be wholly excluded from husbandry; but every occupier 



of a large farm may, at least, use some oxen to very great advantage. They are all 

 " worked at Winjdsor in collars, as their step is found to be much more free than when 

 " coupled together with yokes ; and they are found to do their work with much greater 

 " ease in collars than in yokes, which ought every where to be exploded. 



" The different kinds of oxen are, in some measure, suited to the soil. — Upon the Norfolk 

 " farm, which is a light soil, the Devonshire sort are used ; upon the Flemish farm, where 

 " the soil is strong and heavy, the Herefordshire ; and in the park, where the business is 



" cai'ting, harrowing, and rolling, the Glamorganshire. They are all excellent in their 



" different stations, 



" It may not be improper to mention a very simple method which has been discovered, 

 " of first training them to the collar, which is nothing more than putting a broad strap round 



