make his labour the most costly folly to which, probably, he could addict himself. Not many, however, of those who have been brought up to the business, err to this extent: it is chiefly those who turn from other pursuits to this, who find out, when too late, that they have not knowledge and industry enough even to become a farmer!

LIVE STOCK.

OXEN.

THIS part of the produce of the farm is that by which the occupier frequently realizes the principal part of his profits. Englishmen are fond of good living; and would consider that they dined poorly indeed, if they had no other

viands than the choicest vegetable productions. They must enjoy the substantial and savoury blessings of beef and bacon, mutton, lamb, and veal, and all the varieties of poultry and of game, or they (at least the wealthier classes) think themselves objects of compassion, restricted to vegetable diet!

Well then, as they are able and willing to pay for these things, we farmers and graziers endeavour to supply their wants; and are not sorry to have another way of disposing of our vegetable produce besides the sale of it for money. By feeding animals which are required for the table we get rid of our grass, hay, corn, and other things, in a more advantageous manner than if we were obliged to sell all for others to consume.

The first on the list of English meats, undoubtedly, must be beef.

The Ox-in a wild state called the bisonis an animal comprising the most useful assemblage of qualities and materials for the varied necessities of man in a civilized condition, of any creature with which nature has supplied him. Cattle of this class yield subsistence, living or dead; and this in greater abundance, of course, than the other sorts, which are inferior in size. A cow may be compared to a sum of money, from which a man may take continually without diminishing his store; for the carcass we may call the principal, and the milk and calves the interest. There is, indeed, this difference in favour of the animal as property, that she will yield in a year, perhaps, twice the value of her purchase and food; whilst the same sum in money will not generally yield in the public funds a twenty-fifth part of its own amount as interest.

G

In ancient times, and in other countries, the ox has been scarcely less useful as a labouring beast than as food. Our horses answer better for this purpose here; but still we may see them occasionally yoked to the plough or waggon. The pastures of Great Britain favour much the health and growth of these animals; so that our own beef, milk, butter, and cheese are unrivalled.

In enumerating the uses to which the body of this creature is applicable, we must reckon up all the different substances of which it is composed: the flesh, the fat, the intestines, the blood, the bones, the skin, the hair, the hoofs, the horns. For the use of the flesh, or beef, I will merely request my young friends to ask themselves the question at their usual dinner hour. That portion of the fat which is not eaten with the flesh helps to form candles

and soap. The blood is employed largely in the purification of sugar, and in some other manufacturing processes. Of the bones are made knife and fork handles. The skin interposes, in the form of leather, between the tender foot of man and the harsh or humid soil. The hair serves, in the mixture of mortar for plasterers, to give it a tenacity, or power of holding together, which is most important for walls so covered; the hoofs and horns, softened by heat, are moulded into almost any form for various implements of incessant utility-such as handles, combs, and lanthorn panes. The clippings, parings, and refuse of the hide, and other parts, are boiled down to a jelly, which, being strained, purified, and pressed into moulds, constitutes glue, without which our chairs and tables would fall in pieces.

With regard to the purchase, sale, and ma