1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
415 
gated meadows are worth about §500 per acre, and 
this in a country that is by no means over-peopled, 
and where farm products bring about the same 
prices that they do in New England—the same 
price that is, in money. In labor it is very much 
higher; for these people are extremely frugal, and 
make their sort of comfortable living by an amount 
of toil that is almost unknown with us. They live 
as most of our farmers would not live, and their 
dress, though sufficient, is very simple. At the 
same time, since we have been in the country, we 
have not seen a beggar nor any sign of pauperism ; 
and I was told by a physician who has charge of 
forty-five villages, within an area of about one- 
hundred square miles, that in the whole range of 
his practice, there are only six families who have to 
be treated at the public cost. From what a travel¬ 
er is able to gather, it would seem that this very 
substantial prosperity is due chiefly to industry, 
frugality, and simplicity of living—but in good 
degree also to the use of irrigation. 
I do not find much in the methods of work here 
prevailing, that seem better than our own. The 
implements employed are generally rude and less 
efficient than ours, and there seems to be less man¬ 
ual dexterity in their use ; but in one item we must 
accord to them a very decided superiority. I refer 
to their manner of yoking oxen, (or more often 
cows, for the smaller farmers seem to depend 
entirely upon cows for their field and road work). 
In some districts the animals are yoked together, 
but more often, and it seems to me to be more 
advantageously, they work independently, and 
draw by traces like horses. Whether double or 
single, the yoke is much better than ours, and bet¬ 
ter than I have seen anywhere else. And whether 
on the score of humanity, or of the profitable man¬ 
agement of one’s animals, I can render no better 
service to the readers of the American Agriculturist, 
than by describing the apparatus. It has always 
seemed to me that our method of bringing the 
draft by the yoke on the neck, and by stiff wooden 
bows close upon the shoulder-blades, is very defec¬ 
tive, while the system prevailing in southern 
Europe, of binding a heavy beam over the forehead, 
though better, is still unsatisfactory. 
The farmers of the valley of the Mosel use a very 
light yoke, (the double yoke weighing not one- 
third so much as ours), and bind it on top of the 
head, immediately behind the horns, resting it 
upon a soft cushion, and fastening it to the horns 
by a leather thong, in such a way that the chief 
tension comes over a part of the cushion, which 
turns down over the forehead,—its front edge 
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Fig. 2.— CUSHION FOB YOKE AND FBINGE. 
being furnished with a fringe of knotted cords, 
hanging nearly to the nostrils, and serving as a fly 
net, and a decided ornament. 
The accompanying illustrations drawn by meas¬ 
urement from a sample that I am taking home, will 
enable any one who chooses to try this method. Fig. 
1 represents a yoke for a medium-sized ox. The 
material is oak, l 7 / 8 inch thick. The lower part 
of the curve which rests over the neck is nicely 
rounded off at both edges, so as to bear easily. The 
long rectangular hole c, about an inch wide, receives 
the thong which is prevented from slipping through 
by a knot tied in its end. The holes e, e, are to re¬ 
ceive iron eyes to which to attach the traces. The 
standard d, has a narrow slot or jaw into which to 
fasten the little end of the thong after the yoke has 
been bound fast. Fig. 2 is the cushion, (11 inches 
wide and 17 inches long), which is usually made on 
the upper side of sheep-skin with tho wool on, and 
on the lower side with canvass. It is sewed in par¬ 
allel lines about iy a inch apart, the spaces be- 
Fig. 3.— MANNER OF FASTENING YOKE. 
tween the stitching being stuffed with wool or 
hair. Leather or heavy canvass is frequently sub¬ 
stituted for the sheepskin, but the latter is best. 
The fringe is a simple affair ; it varies a good deal 
in form, and it is frequently omitted. Fig. 3 shows 
the manner in which the yoke is fastened to the 
head, the thong is of half-tanned hide, 8 or 11 feet 
long. The yoke being laid upon the cushion, close 
behind the horns, the thong is carried across the 
forehead, below the horns, passes back through the 
notch b, is brought over through a , passed in front 
of the horn, then in the same manner through 6’ and 
a’, then in like manner around the horn on that side, 
and then again across and back in the same manner, 
making four thicknesses of the strap across the 
forehead. The small end is then wound around the 
horn and caught in the slot d. The weight of the 
yoke is borne upon the cushion, and the strap 
against which the tension comes, is also borne by 
the cushion. The animal’s force is exerted in the 
most natural and strongest way, (by butting against 
the load), and its head and neck are free and un¬ 
constrained. When two cattle are working to¬ 
gether, they have leather straps about their necks 
which are chained together for plowing and similar 
work, or attached to the hold-back chains of the pole 
for road work. This arrangement is a good deal bet¬ 
ter for pulling than for backing, but nothing could 
be worse for the latter work, than our own system 
of forcing the head and horns back against a stiff, 
heavy, and uncomfor¬ 
table yoke. I live in a 
country where oxen are 
much used, and have 
always used them more 
or less myself, so that 
I have been particularly 
struck with the much 
freer and lighter action 
of the animals I have 
seen here, cultivating 
the broad hill tops, or 
going briskly to market 
or to the hay-field. 
The difference of speed 
may be due in some de¬ 
gree to the difference of 
race, for the cows and 
oxen here are rather 
lightly built and more active than ours, hut I be¬ 
lieve it to be due also to the much more advantage¬ 
ous method of yoking. Carts are not much used 
here, but when they are, the yoke is double, about 
seven inches wide in the middle, and has a three- 
inch hole through which the end of the tongue is 
passed, thus avoiding the use of our heavy iron 
ring and staple. 
There is one other point, especially observable 
throughout all these “ effete monarchies of Europe,” 
that cannot fail to strike every traveling American 
with wonder. I refer to the character and condi¬ 
tion of the roads. Even in this dry, gravelly soil, 
naturally well suited for making good roads of our 
own type, and where there is hardly one wealthy 
man to twenty populous villages, every road that is 
more than a mere wood-path is graded and McAd- 
amized, and is kept in serviceable condition by the 
occasional addition of broken stone. All roads a 
grade higher, such as those leading to the market 
towns, to the railroad stations, or to the river vil¬ 
lages, are even better than these, while the maiu 
post-roads, which take the chief travel, are in every 
point and in every particular as good as the much 
vaunted “Drive” of Central Park. Roads of the 
last two classes are almost invariably bordered on 
both sides with some small growing tree, giving 
shade to the road without too much taxing the soil 
or shading the laud. There are several reasons why 
roads are better here than with us ; the most im¬ 
portant being that these people have learned that a 
narrow road is as good as a wide one, even the 
high roads being barely wide enough for two vehi¬ 
cles to pass easily. Of course roads so made cost 
in the first construction a very considerable amount 
of labor, but after that, if they are well watched, 
the cost of their maintenance is very trifling indeed. 
One need only see the antiquated, ram-shackle old 
wagons, which even when new would hardly last 
a year on our roads, and which are evidently often 
older than the men who drive them, and see the 
enormous loads that are drawn by apparently inef¬ 
ficient teams, to realize that the money invested 
in making first-rate roads brings an enormous an¬ 
nual return in the economy of teams and the sav¬ 
ing of wear and tear. 
A Farm-House Costing $3,000. 
BY S. B REED, ARCHITECT, CORONA, LONG ISLAND, N. Y. 
This plan of a Farm-House embraces a commo¬ 
dious and convenient interior, with such external 
features as to clearly express its purpose, and it 
will be recognized as at once adapted to rural situa¬ 
tions and domestic life, providing much valuable 
space, and affording a variety of pleasing and sym¬ 
metrical outlines, with due economy in expense 
of construction. Perhaps the most striking fea¬ 
ture is the breadth of the front* which is 51 feet. 
(The average depth is 22 feet •? inches). As far as 
practicable, all prolonged vertical lines are avoided, 
leaving horizontal ones to prevail, as of more prac¬ 
tical utility and value. Where opportunities a- 
bound for “spreading out,” as in the country, it 
would be obviously incompatible to build tall, or 
stilted houses, that would not comport with their 
surroundings, nor provide the conveniences desira- 
Fig. 2.—FLAN OF CELLAR. 
ble in all rural habitations_ Elevation, (fig. 
1).—The general details of the elevation are made 
up of simple parts so appropriated and balanced, 
that they harmonize with each other, and secure a 
graceful outline. The principal or main portions 
of this building will be observed to be the central 
one, while the wings at either side are collaterals, 
that give equipoise and rest to the whole structure. 
The steep roofs, with their subdued pediments, and 
spreading cornices, and dormers, the bay and other 
windows, the wide entrance, and open piazza, are 
