Clayter - The Farmers' Barn Book -- Jaya Nrsimhadeva!

[Guest guest]

Hare Krsna!!

 

On the auspicious day of Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance, I just received

a note that my interlibrary loan had come in from University of Illinois

at Springfield.

 

It's Clayter's publication: The Farmers' Barn Book (9th edition, 1860)

 

I went and picked it up just now. A twenty-page chapter by one J.S.

Skinner, Esq, is titled

 

"Essay on the Advantages to be Derived from a More Extended Use of Oxen

In the Husbandry of the United States"

 

I can't remember who originally mentioned Clayter's book on this Cow

conference, but it looks very promising.

 

Here's just one morsel, written in 1860 (or earlier):

 

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We are told that in India bullocks are used for the saddle and coach,

and that there travelling oxen are curried, clothed and attended, with

as much solicitude, and much greater kindness, than we bestow on our

best horses. The Indian cattle are extremely docile, and quick of

perception, patient and kind; like horses, their chief travelling pace

is the trot; and they are reported by those who have ridden them often,

to perform journeys of sixty successive days at the rate of thirty to

forty-five miles a day.

 

*******************

 

Hmmm... Has anyone heard of riding on bullocks using a riding saddle in

India? I think this book may be a great mixture of legend and useful tips!

Here's another excerpt:

 

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[how to yoke a team of oxen:]

I have often called the ox I wanted from a drove of all sorts of

cattle. Stand the yoke on one end; take out the off-ox's bow; steady

the yoke with the left hand, and with the right hold up the bow towards

the ox, and beckoning with it, call him by name to you; slip the bow

under his neck; turn the yoke down upon it; enter it in the bow-holes,

and put in the bow-pin; then take out the other bow, and lifting up the

near end of the yoke with the left hand, with the bow in the right call

the near-ox also by name, who will come and "bow his neck to the yoke,"

and is harnessed the same as his companion.

 

*******************

 

I hope to xerox and scan some of the pages for future reference, in case

anyone is interested.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi