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Although in the first instance the horse served mainly, if not
altogether, as an ally of man in his contests with his neighbors, its
most substantial use has been in the peaceful arts. As pack animal and
drawer of the plough, the ox appears in general to have come into use
before its swifter companion. The displacement of horned cattle has
been due to the fact that their structure and habits make them much
less fit for arduous and long-continued labor than the horse has been
found to be. The cloven foot, because of its division, is weak. It
cannot sustain a heavy burden. Even with the unincumbered weight of
the body of the animal, the feet are apt to become sore in marches
which the heavily mounted horse endures unharmed. Centuries of
experience have shown that while the ox is an excellent animal for
drawing a plough in a stubborn soil, and is well adapted to pulling
carriages where the burden is heavy and the speed is not a matter of
importance and the distance not great, the creature is too slow for
the greater part of the work which the farmer needs to do. The pace
which they can be made to take in walking is not more than half as
great as that of a quick-footed horse moving in the same gait; and the
ox is practically incapable, because of its weak feet, of keeping up a
trot on any ordinary road. But for the fact that an aged ox may be
used for beef, they would doubtless long since have ceased to serve us
as draught animals. As it is, with the growing money value of the
laborer's time, this slow-moving creature is steadily and rather
rapidly disappearing from our farms. This change, indeed, is one of
the most indicative of all those now occurring in our agriculture. It
is an excellent example of the operations which the increase in the
workman's pay is bringing into our civilization.

The natural advantages of the horse for the use of man consisted in
its size, strength, and endurance to burden; form of the body, which
enabled a skilful rider to maintain his position astride the trunk; and
the peculiar shape of the mouth and disposition of the teeth which made
it possible to use the bit. With these direct physical advantages there
were others of a physiological and psychic sort, of equal value. The
creature breeds as well under domestication as in the wilderness; the
young are fit for some service in the third year of their life, and
are, at least in the less elaborated breeds, in a mature condition when
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