Harness A Team Of Oxen
| Field | Agriculture |
| Went Obsolete | First half of the 20th Century in North America |
| Made Obsolete By | Cheap tractors |
| Knowledge Assumed | How to handle large domestic animals without injury |
| When useful | If the tractor breaks down; after the bomb |
To plow a field or haul your Conestoga to Oregon, you need animals. Oxen are cheap, being gelded bulls, but mules, donkeys, and horses have also been used.
The ox harness is usually carved out of wood, and features a stout draw bar which is set about the beast's neck with a smaller dowel curved to fit around the neck and pegged into place. The leads and reins are then attached to the draw bar, and to the tool or vehicle you want to pull.
Horse collars are usually made out of leather, but the principle remains the same.
This editor's grandparents used animal labor to tend their farms in northern and central Kentucky at least until the end of the depression. Cheap John Deere, Ford, and Alliss Chalmers tractors at first supplemented, and then replaced the animal labor.
