Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-10-08
AGRICULTURAL.
MORE OXEN NEEDED.


that while there is no diminution in the
number of domestic animals kept i'll the
State, during the last ten years, there Is
great falling of i'll the number of work
ing oxen and this accounts, in part, for
the continued high price of beef while
the prices OF almost everything else have
declined. Why, the nearly three hun
lred farmers of Augusta own less than
twenty-five yoke of working oxen, and
while this does not represent the ratio OF
working oxen to the farmers in the State,
it comes much nearer to it than it ought
to. We believe that without exception,
every farmer in this city owns horse,
and from that to three or four, while only
on an average one i'll twelve owns par
Of oxen. The argument put forth IN IA
vor of this condition of things, and we
admit that there is force in it, is that
horses perform the work betterand quick
er than oxen that they are more fit for
use on roads or to encounter bad weather
that they suffer less from the extraordi-
nary exertion and from heat than oxen,
and that they are adapted to many pur-
poses for which oxen are unfit
But is not the argument in favor of OK
tH N'AtA tpNt i's'o 81
first, and the annual expense for harness,
fariery and food is much less for oxen
than for the horse they perform more
labor for their annual cost of keeping ;
they increase in value from the beginning
Of working; are worth more at last than
at the first, going at last to the butcher
at price varying from one to two hum
dred dollars per yoke, while the skin of
the dead horse is all that is worth any
thing. There are some oX-teams that
will do as much work on the farm as
horses, team for team. but we are aware
that such instances are rare. On the
contrary. as general rule, horses will
perform about twice as much work on
the farm as oxen, English farmers, after
carefully experimenting. have arrived at
the conclusion that while it takes eight
oxen to do the work of five horses the
balance Of cost would be from twelve to
fifteen dollars per annum in favor of OK
teams. In Scotland, on Il large farm,
where several teams of both kinds were
used, three oxen were found to be equal
to two horses for all kinds OF farm work,
and the balance in the cost of keeping,
etc, for twelve years. at the rate of three
pACll " lhp IlOlSts,, III
ed to two hundred and thirty dollars in
favor of the oxen.
All this goes to prove that for actual
labor on the farm, there is decided ad-
vantage in using oxen We are speaking
now more particularly of the farmers of
New England, for in the cultivation of the
immense fields of the South and West,
horse labor is Indispensable, and on all
farms situated remote from the markets
The horse will withstand the heat better
than the OK, but in our mixed husbandry,
there is no occasion for using either
horses or oxen constantly during the
heated term. The low and even tempera-
ture of England does not interfere with
working oxen during the whole season,
except i'll rare cases. We have not the
least doubt that if the small farmer with
from fifty to one hundred acres of land,
who finds it necessary TO keep more than
one horse to do his work, would keep n
yoke of oxen, the business of the farm
would 60 on fully as well as though he
kept two horses, while the profit would
be mucl: more satisfactory. We recog-
nize the fact that the horse is the noblest
and most useful of all our domestic ami
mails, but We must speak a word III behalf
OF the patient OK which, with less danger
from disease or accident, with less ex-
pense of food and harness, and with the
certainty that his value is increasing with
age, should in our Judgment, IN ordinary
farm work, take the place of the horse.
We have said that one of the chief OBJ
jections TO the use of oxen on the farm is
that they are slow, but there isno remedy
for this ? The unbroken. unworked steer
or OK walks about as fast rs the horse,
and why should he change his gait when
broken TO labor. and not the horse ? Is
ii not the difference in their treatment
that accounts for part Of tine ,hii"Tonce in
their walking, after being broken to la-
bor? Tie steer is broken to the yoke
before his strength is matured and com
PEELED to labor day after day, and to draw
burdens beyond his strength. and which
he is unable to draw at all except at n
snaIis pace ; or he is put to labor with
older cattle. which have been broken
down by the same treatment, and he is
obliged to adapt his walking gait to theirs
The powers of the colt are rarely tested
until he arrives at comparative maturity !;
light loads, easy carriages and n rapid
gait falls to his lot, and his whole treat
ment is as well calculated to make him
active, as that of the steer is to make him
slow. BY breaking the steer TO a livelier
step, by not loading him so heavily as to
render such a step impossible, and by
accustoming him to activity III his move
ments SO rs to form a habit, n thing every
cattle trainer knows to be entirely prac-
ticable, the complaint of slowness i'll OK
en- would not so generally be raised as an
objection to their use upon the farm.
UUiuc EdrylCr