1843 article on oxen vs horses

01-24-2001, 10:41 AM

" The Advantages to Be Derived from a More Extended Use of Oxen"
Excerpts from an essay found in the Farmers' Barn Book by Clayter 1843
>From the ISCOWP News Vol. 10 Issue 3

The Farmer's Barn Book appears to have been a very standard agricultural
reference book, both in the U.S. and Great Britain, throughout the 1800s -- it
was not just some minor, little known work -- but rather a book that was a
highly regarded authority at the time, as evidenced by the fact that it was
published in numerous editions both in the U.S. and Great Britain. It is still
included in the libraries of many agricultural schools.

In answer to the argument against oxen now under consideration, and the one
which has had most influence in restricting the use of them, we now offer the
views urged by the illustrious Madison (one of the early presidents of the USA)
whose pen simplified and enlightened every subject it touched, as could not but
happen with a mind so pure and so bright.

The objections generally made to the ox are 1st, that he is less tractable than
the horse; 2nd, that he does not bear heat as well; 3rd, that he does not
answer
for the single plough used in our corn fields; 4th, that he is slower in his
movements; 5th, that he is less fit for carrying the produce of the farm to
market.

The first objection is certainly founded in mistake. Of the two animals the ox
is the most docile. In all countries where the ox is the ordinary draught
animal, his docility is proverbial. His intractability, where it exists, has
arisen from an occasional use of him only, with long and irregular intervals;
during which, the habit of discipline being broken, a new one is to be formed.
The second objection has as little foundation. The constitution of the ox
accom-odates itself as readily as that of the horse to different climates. Not
only in ancient Greece and Italy, but throughout Asia, as presented to us in
ancient history, the ox and the plough are associated. At this day, in the warm
parts of India and China, the ox, not the horse, is in the draught service. In
every part of India the ox always appears, even in the train of her armies. And
in the hottest parts of the West Indies, the ox is employed in hauling the
weighty produce to the seaports. The mistake here, as in the former case, has
arisen from the effect of an occasional employment only, with no other than
green food. The fermentation of this in the animal, heated by the weather, and
fretted by the discipline, will readily account for his sinking under his
exertions; when green food even, much less dry, with a sober habit of labor,
would have no such tendency.

The third objection also is not a solid one. The ox can, by a proper harness,
be
used singly, as well as the horse, between the rows of Indian corn; and equally
so used for other purposes. Experience may be safely appealed to on this point.

In the fourth place, it is alleged that he is slower in his movements. This is
true, but in a less degree than is often taken for granted. Oxen that are well
chosen for their form are not worked after the age of about eight years, (the
age at which they are best fitted for beef), are not worked too many together,
and are suitably matched, may be kept at nearly as quick a step as that of
horses we see at work, who, on account of their age, or the leanness occasioned
by the costliness of the food they require, lose the advantage where they might
have once had it?

The last objection has most weight. The ox is not well adapted as the horse to
the road service, especially for long trips. In common roads, which are often
soft, and sometimes suddenly become so the form of his foot and the shortness
of
his leg are disadvantages; and, on roads frozen or turnpiked, the roughness of
the surface in the former case, and its hardness in both cases, are
inconvenient
to his cloven foot. But where the distance to market is not great, where the
varying state of the roads and of the weather can be consulted, and where the
road service is less in proportion to the farm service, the objection is almost
deprived of its weight.

In cases where it most applies, its weight is diminished by the consideration
that a much greater proportion of service on the farm may be done by oxen than
is now commonly done, and that the expense of shoeing them is little different
from that of keeping horses shod.

The next most serious charge against the ox is constitutional slowness of
motion, which, as many suppose, no course of education can overcome, but which,
may be set off in comparison with the greater speed of the horse, as Aesop
illustrated the difference in the long run between the pace of the 'tortoise
and
the hare! "The greater haste the less speed," is a proverb suited to this case
as to that.

It has already been seen that ox-teams travel over the ever verdant pampas of
Buenos Ayres, at the rate of thirty miles a day, for a month together. Twenty
years ago, the writer of this held correspondence with Commodore Jacob Jones,
himself a practical farmer, and an habitually close and judicious observer, and
then commanding our squadron in the Mediterranean, on the subject of Andalusian
horses, cattle, and other animals, with a view to the importation, under
authority from the Albermarle Agriculture Society. Of such as might be deemed
we
now quote from his letter as applicable to the questions both of speed and
susceptibility to eat:

"The cattle that I have seen in Spain appear to be nothing superior to ours,
nor
have I seen anywhere on the coasts of the Mediterranean any that appear better
than those in America, except a race of white cattle at Naples used for the
draft. I was informed by a gentleman who, in supplying the government with
timber, had used thirty yoke of them for two years, that during that time they
had constantly traveled from twenty to twenty five miles a day. They are
generally fifteen hands high; their bodies long, thin, and deep; legs long;
small light head; sharp muzzle resembling deer; color entirely white, except
black nose, ears, and tuft of the tail. They are most frequently worked in the
thills of the cart, and are as spirited and walk as quick as a horse, and
appeared not to suffer from heat more than a horse."

To show, however, that we are not dependent on any foreign stock, it may be
stated that the small, pale red field ox about Salisbury in Maryland will
travel
twenty five miles in a day, with heavy loads of lumber going, and returning
empty, over the sandy roads of that region; while it may be affirmed, after
particular inquiry, that the distance made by the heavy-bodied, grain-loving,
Conestoga horses on the national road between Cumberland and Wheeling averages
not over sixteen miles, six horses with loads of from six to eight thousand
pounds.

"Just at the close of the war, in the summer of 1783, I recollect being at the
house of an agricultural gentleman of Princeton, in New Jersey, where Congress
was then sitting, and that Charles Thomson, the Secretary, was present. One of
Arthur Young's Agricultural Tours in England lay on the table, and gave rise to
a conversation on the use of oxen for the draft, particularly when geared with
collars, hames, and traces, like horses; and Mr. Thomson related the following
fact, now, for substance, perfectly in my recollection.

Traveling in that part of Chester county in Pennsylvania which lay between
Lancaster in that State and Newport on Christiana creek, Mr. Thompson fell in
with a team of a novel character in that country, being composed of one pair of
horses and one pair of oxen: and the latter were accoutered with harness like
horses, only with the collars turned upside down. His curiosity being excited,
he stopped and made some inquiries, and received from the driver an account as
follows: that he and a neighbor, each having a horse team and wagon, had
entered
into a contract to transport a quantity of flour (I think in a given time) to
Newport; that in the midst of the work one or two of his horses failed, (felled
sick or died), and he was not in circumstances conveniently to procure others;
but he had a pair of oxen, and he concluded to try whether they would supply
the
place of his horses that he made the experiment and succeeded. He told Mr.
Thomson that the oxen were more useful to him than horses; for after some fall
rains, when the roads had become miry, he continued to carry his full
complement
of barrels of flour, while his neighbor's horse team frequently getting
stalled,
(the familiar term in Pennsylvania when a team gets set fast in a slough),
compelled him to lessen his loads. But he added, that in returning from Newport
with their wagons empty, his neighbor had the advantage in speed, although none
in the actual performance of the contract."

A writer in the Memoirs of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, speaking to
a
community who neither could nor would be deceived on a matter so well
understood
by, and so deeply interesting to them, says - "The principal argument of the
advocates for the cultivation by horses in Maryland seems to be the superior
speed of the horse. With this must proceed from an imperfect training of the
cattle. With us our cattle will plough an acre of ground much better, and in as
short a time, as a pair of horses would do it, unless they can trot their
horses
in the plough, so they will get in a ton of hay in as short a time."

Here we are well persuaded the sagacious writer hits the nail on the head, when
he suggests that the objection on the score of speed must arise from an
"imperfect training of the cattle." He must possess an imperfect knowledge of
the difference between the habits of the New England and the Southern plough
man
who is not prepared to admit that in nothing is that difference greater than in
their treatment of all their cattle, and more especially their oxen. I this
very
difference, in fact, is to be found the solution of the question, and this
brings us to the point for making the suggestions we propose on the breed,
gearing, training, and general treatment of the ox.