December 23, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 581 
of steam power at the periods when most necessary. There are 
two periods of the year when it is especially important that the 
cultivating power should be equal to the work to be done— 
namely, the spring seed time for Lent corn, the preparation for 
early root crops, and again the autumn cultivation of corn stubbles 
during and immediately after harvest. 
We have now arrived at the point of our subject, as to how far 
the animal power of the farm can be made efficient for the culti¬ 
vation of the land at every season of the year, for it is positively 
intolerable that the success of our tillage and seeding of the 
crops in due season should be dependant upon the occasional use 
of steam power in aid of the animal power, unless it can be 
obtained to a certainty when most required. This is extremely 
important as a matter of farm management; for let us consider 
how short is the period when the extra work for steam power is 
required either in the spring or autumn, for the time in our 
climate cannot often be numbered by weeks—in fact, frequently 
only by days, when the weather proves favourable or otherwise. 
The home farmer will therefore be enabled to see the advantage 
of a sufficiency of animal power to make him independent of 
hiring steam tackle upon farms not of sufficient acreage to employ 
steam tackle as the chief motive power on the farm. The next 
point is, What resources we have in animal power ? For the past 
twelve or fifteen years the use of oxen has declined except in cer¬ 
tain districts, where they are still held in estimation, and used by 
the farmers for tillage of the land. Horses have, however, during 
the same period advanced in price, although upon a great many 
large farms steam tackle has displaced a considerable number. 
In the absence of steam power we have to choose between horses 
or oxen, or some of each, and we have particularly noticed that 
points for discussion have arisen between their advocates as to 
the merits of both kinds of animals for farm work ; but it has 
generally been put as follows :—“ Horses versus oxen.” We see no 
reason why the matter should be discussed in this way, for when¬ 
ever we have had an opportunity of joining in a discussion where 
our opinion has been requested, so far from placing them one 
against the other, we have for many years and up to the present 
time advocated the use of both, except under peculiar circum¬ 
stances. The points, then, which naturally arise before we could 
state the proportion in which horses should be used depend upon 
a variety of circumstances, such as the soil and climate, the facility 
of obtaining good animals, and many others, which will come into 
notice during the statements we shall have to make before con¬ 
cluding the subject. 
In certain districts of the kingdom no oxen are used for tillage 
work in consequence of the manner of using them, and their 
value in work as compared with horses is but little understood ; 
we therefore propose to give the opinions of farmers who do use 
them, in order to draw some conclusions as to what improvements 
may be made in the management of oxen during the working 
period. Before doing this, however, we wish to call the attention 
of the home farmer to the mode of management at an early period 
of the present century, so that if any points are suggested worth 
our notice we may avail ourselves of them to a certain extent. 
About thirty years ago we were present at a “farmer’s club,” 
when the subject of “ The advantages of working oxen as com¬ 
pared with horses for farming purposes ” was introduced by a 
practical farmer, who commenced his observations by stating that 
“he had employed oxen both for tillage work as well as waggon 
work for a period of over forty years. He had worked seven oxen 
in a broad-wheel waggon for a number of years, fetched thirty- 
five sacks of Wheat a distance of ten miles, and this had induced 
others to follow his example. When he worked them on the roads 
the animals were cued or shod, otherwise whilst cultivating the 
land they were worked without shoeing. On the last farm he had 
in occupation, consisting of 600 acres, he kept from five to seven 
horses and sixteen oxen, the latter ploughing 3 acres per day, and 
other work of tillage in addition ; the oxen, being fed only upon 
grass in summer and roots and straw in winter, only cost about 
4 s. per week, being about half the cost of horses’ keep. The oxen 
and horses were each broken-in to harness at three years old. 
The cost of a three-year-old steer was about half the cost of a 
three-year-old colt. Allow the latter to live to the age of fifteen 
years you get twelve years work from him—he then dies, sinking 
the whole of his value ; whereas the oxen, although kept at the 
cheapest rate, will gain £1 per year. The casualties on oxen are 
very trivial compared with horses, for he had only lost five oxen 
during a period of fifty years ; the cost of harness was much less 
than for horses, less for the veterinary charges ; neither was shoeing 
required, except for road work. His mode of working oxen was 
to have six for a plough, using three at a time for half the day, 
working from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. After this statement a resolution 
was passed, “ That out of every three teams of horses generally 
one may be discontinued, and a team of oxen substituted instead, 
to the great advantage of the farmer; also, that on many two- 
team farms a team of oxen may be worked.” 
Having now related the ideas which prevailed some thirty-five 
years ago we will refer to the subject as matters are at present, 
and give such recommendations as are now approved by practical 
farmers in various districts, but especially the western and south¬ 
western counties. Various breeds of cattle are used for labour in 
the field, and in our estimation they stand thus—Herefords first, 
then Sussex, next Devon, and lastly Shorthorns. On small occu¬ 
pations, where oxen would be used chiefly, they cannot be bred 
conveniently. They may, however, be purchased at three years 
old, and broken-in for work if required for constant use through¬ 
out the year. The manner of yoking the oxen in early times 
used to be by fastening the draught gear to the horns ; in some 
cases they were yoked to the tip, and in others to the root of the 
horns. At the present time, however, the ox is usually made to 
draw by the shoulder like a horse ; his head is then free and his 
motion natural, and in this way, too, they are more easily broken- 
in to labour. Oxen are not so well adapted for all soils and work 
as horses. We only recommend them as supplementary animal 
power in the absence of steam tackle. Upon the home farm, or 
any farm up to 300 or 400 acres of tillage land, they are best pur¬ 
chased at four years old, and having been broken to work ; and 
they should be in good condition, fit to go into constant labour at 
once. When the oxen are substituted for steam power, as we 
recommend them, they are not required during the whole year ; 
and therefore, instead of sending them into the straw yards for 
winter quarters as working animals for the next year, we prefer 
after autumn tillage and Wheat-sowings are finished to box them 
and feed for beef, making fresh purchases when required. The 
farmer will notice that we do not propose to make them the 
constant labourers on the farm like the horses. We resort to oxen 
in the spring to commence the tillage after an adverse autumn, 
such as we have had for several years past, when the autumn 
fallows could not be completed ; otherwise we take them up on 
the edge of harvest, in order that during the harvest and until 
Wheat-sowing is completed they may assist the horses to culti¬ 
vate the Wheat stubbles and all the land intended for Barley 
and early roots in the succeeding spring. We prefer to purchase 
oxen of full age and power, in order that, like the horses, they 
may be worked two to a plough without a driver, and in this way 
they will plough and do the work, harrowing and rolling, and 
take their part in the work, the same as the horses. To enable 
them to do this they must be fed at the same cost as the horses, 
and cared for by housing and grooming in the same manner, so 
that they may not only be able to do the work, but improve in 
condition and value at the same time, to be fed for beef in the 
winter months. Maize as well as oats are good flesh and muscle¬ 
forming food. Our importations of oxen from Spain and Portugal 
are excellent illustrations of what may be done by working and 
Maize-feeding simultaneously. There is, however, one drawback : 
when a worked ox draws from the shoulder it hardens the meat 
and deteriorates the value of the forequarters of beef, which shows 
the only advantage derived by yoking from the horns. 
In making some comparisons between the horse and the ox it 
should be noted that the ox gains in value during work ; but the 
horse diminishes unless he is sold at six years old, and having been 
broken to work at three years of age. The cost of horse harness 
is much greater, the veterinary charges, the shoeing charges 
greater, and the danger to life and limb are greater than with the 
ox. Oxen, however, are best adapted for dry friable land, such 
as loam, sand, gravelly soil with only small stones in it, and then 
they will not require cueing ; but on strong loams with large flints 
thereon they cannot be worked regularly without cueing. In rela¬ 
tion to cost of oxen : For the past ten years a pair of oxen in good 
working order have cost little more than one horse of good size 
and power fit for two-horse-ploughing work. We shall not enlarge 
upon the subject further at present, but may refer to it hereafter 
on the “Work on the Home Farm.” We ask the home farmer to 
consider the advantages which oxen afford him as a supplementary 
tillage power, when from any circumstances he may be unable to 
obtain the full advantage of immediate access to steam tackle. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—This now consists of finishing the fallow ploughing 
on those farms where it has not already been completed, in order 
that the land may receive the full benefit to be derived by alterna¬ 
tions of frost and rain. The remainder of the land to be sown with 
Wheat after roots fed should be ploughed and sown simultaneously 
as fast as the sheep have cleared the land. Some farmers object to 
sowing Wheat in January, but we have always found the earliest 
season is the safest if 3 bushels of seed per acre are sown, as the crop 
does not suffer so much from weeds as when sown later in the spring. 
