22 
THE OX. 
THE SUSSEX BREED. 
physical strength, than the Devon ; and is superior to the Long-horned varieties for a combination of activity and strength. The 
employment of oxen for labour prevails all over Sussex, but chiefly in the stiff soil of the Wealden. The animals are usually 
worked four, and sometimes six and even eight together; and heifers as well as oxen are employed. They are broken to the 
yoke at three years old, worked usually until the age of five or six, and then they are fattened for the butcher. The employment of 
oxen in the labours of the farm is recommended by certain apparent advantages, which has led to some erroneous conclusions with 
respect to the extent to which these animals may be profitably employed in the ordinary business of the farms of this country. 
The Ox is reared to the age of labour at less expense than the Horse, his subsequent charge of maintenance is smaller, he requires 
less of care and attendance, and at a certain age, when unfitted for labour, he can be fattened; whereas the horse declines in value 
soon after his prime, and ultimately becomes useless. On the other hand, the Ox, although well suited for a slow and steady 
draught, such as the plough demands, is not so well adapted as the Horse for active motion, for distant journeying, or for those 
sudden and unequal exertions which the varied labours of a modern farm require. When oxen, too, are employed largely on the 
farm, and disposed of after two or three years’ labour, there is a continued recurrence to the training of young oxen for the yoke, 
by which means time, so necessary to be economised on a well-ordered farm, is lost in a degree which does not occur when horses 
are the beasts of labour. Even in those parts of the country where the working of oxen is the most largely practised, and where 
the breeds of the country are the best adapted for the purpose, few farmers attempt to cultivate their farms by oxen alone : they 
employ horse-teams in at least equal numbers; thus showing, by their practice, that, even under circumstances the most favour¬ 
able to the employment of this kind of draught, the Horse possesses certain qualities in which the Ox is deficient, and that at 
best the use of oxen can only be subsidiary to that of horses on ordinary farms. The use of oxen has invariably declined in those 
parts of the country where improvements are the most extended, and where the most active system of farm-labour has been 
established; and now it may be said, that the general use of oxen is confined to those parts of the country where the peculiar 
races of cattle suited for labour are reared. In all the districts where the Short-horned Breed of cattle is established, the employ¬ 
ment of oxen in labour is almost unknown; and, in all the districts where the active labour of the turnip-culture is largely 
practised, the Horse is almost exclusively made use of. Indeed, it may be said, that this is an arrangement indicating an advanced 
state of agriculture. By means of it the two kinds of animals are employed for the purposes to which they are, respectively, 
the best adapted—the Horse for active labour, the Ox for being reared the most quickly to that maturity which fits him for 
human food. It is with the especial view of directing attention to this result that these remarks are made. The principle of 
breeding, when applied to an animal to be fattened, is to develope those properties which have relation to the earliest maturity of 
muscle and fat; and the principle of fattening is to supply to the animal the largest quantity of nutriment from his birth to matu¬ 
rity, which consists with the preservation of his health, or which the means of feeding at our command may allow. But these 
principles cannot be fully applied when the oxen of the farm are to be employed for labour. The external form which indicates 
the fitness of an animal for the exertion of its physical powers is different from that which indicates its adaptation to the pur¬ 
pose of early fattening; and hence the general employment of oxen in tillage is unfavourable to due attention to another class of 
properties, while it does not admit of that continued feeding from the birth which brings the animal soonest to the maturity 
required. Reasons, then, it will be seen, exist for confining the use of oxen for labour within certain limits, and of not extending 
the system to parts of the country where breeds of animals unsuited to the purpose are now reared, or where a different system of 
agriculture is established. 
The Breed of Sussex has, like every other, had its warm admirers as well as its too prejudiced opponents. If it has not 
obtained that favour which has been sufficient to cause its extension to other parts of the country, this has not been because the 
breed is naturally bad, but because the same attention has not been employed in calling forth the properties now most generally 
valued in a race of cattle. It is not until a period comparatively recent, that much general attention has been paid to the improve¬ 
ment of the Sussex Breed, with respect to symmetry and early maturity. Latterly, however, great attention has been paid to these 
properties. Various eminent breeders have employed the usual means for correcting the defects of the existing race; and at the 
present time numerous admirable oxen are derived from this county to supply the larger markets with which it is in communication. 
The eminent Breeder from whose stock the specimens in the Plates are taken has long directed attention, with merited success, to 
the improvement of the Sussex Breed. The animals represented are shown just as they were taken from the plough, and when 
kept on the common food supplied to working oxen. 
