150 BOARD OF AttRICULTURE. 



splendid sheep here in Aroostook county, and I believe you 

 can grow them, provided you act understandingly and 

 thoroughly in the matter. By pasturing a large lot of sheep 

 you are improving your pastures in fertility, benefiting your 

 land very much. I believe in cattle, and I think farmers 

 should do their work altogether with oxen. Followinff this 

 course a man becomes a prosperous and successful farmer, 

 provided he works accordingly in other matters. 



Mr. Parker. I wish to say this much in reply to the 

 gentleman. There is no place for an Ayrshire in Aroostook. 

 I did not suppose there was a place in the State for them, 

 and if there is I am glad of it. There is a place for Jerseys, 

 and there is a place for them here in Arocjstook on our small 

 farms. I would keep a Jersey by all means. But the 

 A3'rshire, I do not know where I could be located to want an 

 Ayrshire. It was my favorite at one time, but I found I 

 had not a worthy kind of cow for a favorite, and that I did 

 not want any such stock. We must furnish milk for the 

 cheese factories and raise stock and raise beef for the outside 

 market. We have a cheese factory in Maysville or Presque 

 Isle, and the farmers about here run from four to twenty cows 

 and put their milk in there. Some are raising ten, twelve, 

 fifteen or eighteen calves to sell for beef. • Our farmers in 

 Aroostook have not got up to that yet. Now if they kept 

 Ayrshires, instead of Durhams and Herefords, we could not 

 raise good oxen and beef cattle. I know this. 



Prof. Fernald. I have a great respect for the horse, and 

 I do not propose to sit here and have the horse put entirely 

 aside without saying a word in his defence. I grant that for 

 the greater part of farm work oxen are better, but there are 

 offices which the horse can perform so much better than the 

 ox, it would be useless to set this animal aside entirel3^ For 

 instance, if Brother Burleigh this mornino' had been forced to 

 come all the way from Fort Fairfield Avith oxen, I think we 

 should have been obliged to adjourn until evening. You need 

 horses in this county. You have to move about from one 

 place to another. 



