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Oxen |
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Oxen is a subset of cattle. An ox (plural oxen), also known as a bullock, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable. Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas. Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging. Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs. Working oxen usually require shoes. Since their hooves are cloven, two shoes or ox cues are required for each hoof, unlike the single shoe of a horse. Ox shoes are usually of approximately half-moon or banana shape, either with or without calkins, and are fitted in symmetrical pairs to the hooves. Unlike horses, oxen are not easily able to balance on three legs while a farrier shoes the fourth. Shoeing is accomplished using a massive framework of beams in which the animal can be partly or completely lifted from the ground by slings passed under the body; the feet are then lashed to lateral beams or held with a rope while the shoes are fitted. |
Related Records
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007.001 - Oxen shoe found on the site of an old logging camp near Tolt by Otto Mueller.
Oxshoe
Record Type: Object
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PO.045.0221 - Oxen Team Logging at Birdsview. Bryan and Reid Skid Road near Arlington, Washington. Five teams of oxen pulling logs across skid road. Slash area. Tall snags and trees in background.
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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PO.074.2054 - Ezra Meeker's Oregon Trail Ox Team, Dave and Dandy. Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma. Published by Ellis Post Card Co, Arlington, Washington.
Postcard
Record Type: Photo
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PO.075.0475.1 - Ox team logging. Kenos F Branam's logging team near Issaquah, Washington. Four oxen teams ready to be hitched to logs. Several men stand by or on large sawed logs. Tall timber in background and large stump in foreground.
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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PO.075.0475.2 - Ox team logging. Kenos F Branam's logging team near Issaquah, Washington. Four oxen teams ready to be hitched to logs. Several men stand by or on large sawed logs. Tall timber in background and large stump in foreground.
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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PO.1060.0009 - Men and oxen logging. Found in Dobson family collection, no info known.
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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PO.124.0004 - Four yoke oxen team pulling log on Skid Road and three men on skid road. Edward Kihn with beard owns the team. Left to right Charley Holland, Edward Kihn, Reinhart Kihn
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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PO.329.0087 - Skid Road scene in a logging camp near Arlington, Wash. No 1031 D K Kinsey, photo, Woolley, Wash.
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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PO.381.0013 - Up to date logging in 1897. Columbia River, Wash. C Kinsey Photo Seattle. 108X.
Print, Photographic
Record Type: Photo
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