Agriculture -- England; Conduct of life; Home economics, Rural
lerne to make his yokes, oxe-bowes, stooles, and all 44
maner of plough-geare.
6. ¶ Whether is better, a plough of horses or a plough of
oxen.
[Sidenote: Ox-plough and horse-plough.]
It is to be knowen, whether is better, a plough of
horses, or a plough of oxen, and therin me semeth
oughte to be made a distinction. For in some places an
oxe-ploughe is better than a horse-plough, and in somme 4
places a horse-ploughe is better: that is to say, in euery
place where-as the husband hath seueral pastures to put
his oxen in whan they come fro theyr warke, there the oxe-ploughe
[Sidenote: The ox.]
is better. For an oxe maye nat endure his 8
[Sidenote: [Fol. 6.]]
warke, to labour all daye, and than to be put to the
commons, or before the herdman, and to be set in a folde
all nyghte without meate, and go to his labour in
the mornynge. But and he be put in a good pasture all 12
nyghte, he wyll labour moche of all the daye dayely.
And oxen wyl plowe in tough cley, and vpon hylly
grounde, where-as horses wyll stande st[i]ll. And where-as
[Sidenote: The horse.]
is noo seuerall pastures, there the horse-plowe is better, 16
for the horses may be teddered or tyed vpon leys, balkes,
or hades, where as oxen maye not be kept: and it is not
vsed to tedder them, but in fewe places.
And horses wyl goo faster than oxen on euen grounde 20
or lyght grounde, & be quicker for cariage: but they be
ferre more costly to kepe in winter, for they must haue both
hey and corne to eate, and strawe for lytter; they must
be well shodde on all foure fete, and the gere that they 24
shal drawe with is more costely than for the oxen, and
[Sidenote: Oxen are cheap,]
shorter whyle it wyll last. And oxen wyll eate but straw,
and a lyttell hey, the whiche is not halfe the coste that
horsis must haue, and they haue no shoes, as horses haue. 28
And if any sorance come to the horse, or [he] waxe olde,
broysed, or blynde, than he is lyttell worthe. And if any
sorance come to an oxe, [and he] waxe olde, broysed, or
[Sidenote: [Fol. 6_b_.]]
blinde, for ii._s._ he maye be fedde, and thanne he is mannes 32
[Sidenote: and they can be eaten.]
meate, and as good or better than euer he was. And the
horse, whan he dyethe, is but caryen. And therfore me
semeth, all thynges consydered, the ploughe of oxen is
moche more profytable than the ploughe of horses. 36
7. ¶ The dylygence and attendaunce that a husbande shulde
gyue to his warke, in maner of an other prologue, and
the speciall grounde of all this treatyse.
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