220 



offered $75 dollars a yoke, for three year old working cattle. The President 

 said that he had heretofore suggested the propriety of working cows, and 

 saw no objection to it. He had determined to try tho experiment. The no- 

 tion existing against it was, he tliought, a foolish prejudice. He had now 

 cows yoked for plowing. In Switzerland it was a common thing to see cows 

 working with horses in harness; and cattle were and could be worked with 

 bits like horses. Why should cows be exempted from labor? It was a great 

 loss to every man who kept cows, to have this kind of non-producers. Our 

 wives, our mothers, labor while nursing their children, and no objection is 

 offered to it. And among the brute creation, the mare suckles her colt, and 

 yet she is not exempt from work. He thought that no reason existed for ex- 

 cepting cows from the common destiny — labor — unless the exemption extend- 

 ed to all who could plead the same excuse or cause. 



Upon the subject of flax cotton some new, interesting information was 

 given. It was deemed to be the most valuable subject that could be intro- 

 duced for consideration. New inventions for the rotting and prepari)ig this 

 fibre for spinning, in the common cotton machines, so that the flax cotton 

 should not cost over six or seven cents per pound, had been suggested in Eng- 

 land, and also at Lowell, in Massachusetts. It only required six or eight 

 bushels of seed to produce an acre of flax, and the stem will answer for the 

 fibre. A new plan had been devised for pulling flax by horse power, thus 

 saving a great portion of the labor which it now requires by doing it by hand. 

 The mowing machine would work well in cutting flax, as it would mow from 

 fifteen to twenty acres per day. The advantage of flax over cotton is, that 

 while the seed of cotton is worth nothing, that of flax will alone pay the cost 

 of raising the crop. The texture of flax cotton is fine and beautiful, and 

 looks like silk. It takes a beautiful dye. It can be raised cheaper than cot- 

 ton. The culture of flax is well adapted to this section of country, and the 

 advantages it possesses for raising it places this part of the west in a high 

 position. In raising it, the ground is to be plowed in the fall and the seed 

 can then be harrowed in. This new thing should be hailed as an indication 

 by Providence that we shall not longer be dependant upon cotton. 



The President stated that he was building 27 miles of his new fence, which 

 would take but 6,000 feet of lumber to the mile. Its advantages were not 

 only on account of its cheapness, but that it could be easily taken up and 

 removed. He stated also that he turned sheep into his cornfields in July, and 

 that they eat the cockle and weeds without disturbing the com. These new 

 kind of cleaners not only destroy injurious weed.s, but at the same time sus- 

 tained themselves without cost, making very cheap laborers. 



The treasurer was ordered to have 500 copies of the constitution and by- 

 laws, with the names of the officers and present members, printed and distri- 

 buted. 



The following subject was proposed for conversation at the next meeting: 

 The gathering atid preservation of corn. 



The papers in the county were, on motion, requested to publish the pro- 

 ceedings of the society. 



