Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-05-28
HOW TO BREAK OXEN.
A New York Farmer Discioses the Mys-
teries OF Ills Art.


teries OF Ills Art.
"ltaisng a yoke Of oXen," said a
Westchester County farmer tho Other
day,"i good deal like raising children
You can never tell how they are going
to turn out till they get to big for you
to control. Now, there's that yoke
gentle, peaceable cattle as you ever saw
When first put yoke on them l
said to myself: well, if ! can make
anything out Of those steers I'll give
up farming and make u business OF
breaking cattle How did | do it!
Well' I'll be hanged if know, A.
little physical suasion and good deal
Of coaXing. Brush the dirt off that
stump and sit down and I'll tell you
something about oxen,
The first thing is your breed. Now
if you would keep Il Durham down
you'd get good OK, but Durhams
grow too stocky. Fifteen or sixteen
hundred pounds is about as heavy as
an OK ought to run, but a Durham
will go up into 1000 pounds without
effort. Ilolsteincs are open to the same
objection. Aldcrncys, Ayrshires, and
Jerseys are too light, even if they were
not to valuable. Common natives
make the best oxen. The animal is
called steer till it gets to be 2 or
years Old. Then itS an OK. The
breaking in of a Spring steer begins
the following Fall. | tell you a calf
6 or s 8month3 old is friSky thing as
rule and don't you forget it. But
they svon come to time The first
thing to do is to learn the,animal to
mind the CAD. Get him quieted down
andthen strikehim lightly on the flank,
and he'll 90 ahead. Strike him on the
nose, and he'll at first turn to one side;
but if you work at him a little whilN
he'll learn that tap on the nose means
to back up. When you'v taught him
to back you must teach him to 'haw
or gee that is. turn to the left OF
right. This training usually includes
two animals which you propose to
yoke together, and they are as near
the same size and disposition as you
can get them. Disposition and size
have to be taken into consideration in
deciding which animal you will place
on the off or right side and which on
the nigh. The driver walks on the
nigh or left side, and if there is any
difference in the size of the animals
he wants the one furthest from him to
be the highest, 50 he can reach him
with the CAD over the back of the nigh,
animal. Then he wants the friSkiest
one next to him, so lie can look after
him.
I'm trying to find ont the disposition
of the cattle the yoke comes into play
The yoke, you see is in three pieces.
The bar which runs across the neck
is the yoke proper, suppose, but the
whole thing is Icalled the yoke The
bows run around under the throats Of
the cattle and are made fast by pin
in the bar. The bows ara made Of
oak or hickory and the bar of bass
wood. A good yoke costs about So
Farmers used to whittlo them out in
slack times during the Winter, but
machinery does the work now.
when you first put a yoke on a
pair of steers it scares them, but they
soon get used to it. Then you train
them arorud the barnyard or up and
down the road. Touch the off animal
on the off side and he'll come around
toward you--that is, swing around to.
the left or haw. The nigh animal
NAV feel the off one coming around
and come with him, or you may have
to tap him on the nose. He backs and
that brings him around. To gee a
yoke, or swing them off to she right,
You 90 through the samo manruvre,
starting off of course with the nigh
animal. Simple enough it seems.
doesn't it? But it takes weeks and
months to break a yoke of oxen.
"You can begin breaking steers
when they are 6 or s months old, but
t they are not fit to use much till they
are , or years old. While you're
breaking them you can use them for
light work around the yard or for
bringing up snag of wood, but heavy
work is liable to injure them"
! "In what way are oxen superior to
horses
"Well they cost less to keep and for
i some kinds of work they are altogether
better. On rough ground, where a
i. horse would he in danger of breaking
y its legs, an OK is all right, and for log
. glng they can't be beat. A good yoke
of oxen-that is, u yoke well broken
aud neither to large or too small-is
y worth Sl5O."-NaO York Times.