80 [Senate 



crosses between the above named breeds or the native, which tells 

 favorably as to the advance that the breeding of cattle has made in 

 this county.* 



WORKING OXEN. 



The committee on working cattle, submit the following report: 



The value of the working ox, in his best character and capacity, 

 is not perhaps in general fully appreciated in this State. That oxen 

 might, with great advantage in many instances, be substituted for 

 horses in the performance of farm work, is we believe true. If pro- 

 perly bred, matched and trained, oxen are scarcely if at all, inferior to 

 horses in quickness of work, while the advantage of simplicity and 

 cheapness of gearing, exemption from disease, and ultimate value, is 

 acknowledged to be altogether in favor of oxen. Hence your com- 

 mittee believe that the funds appropriated for the improvement of 

 working oxen are, to say the least, as productive of useful results, as are 

 accomplished in any other department of the society's operations. 



For the premium of $20 for the best 20 yoke from any one county, 

 only one entry was made. 



Two entries were made for the premiums for the best 10 yoke from 

 any one town, viz : Jas. S. & W. W. Wadsworth, of Geneseo, Rus- 

 sel Blackstone, and others, of New-Hartford. Considering the re- 

 markable equality of match, both in respect to shape, color and size, 

 we award the first premium to Messrs. Wadsworth. The other team 

 was, however, a good one in appearance, and is in our opinion, 

 well worthy the second premium. 



For the premiums for the best yoke of working cattle, there were 

 eight entries and seven competitors. The cattle were submitted to 

 a trial on a loaded cart, and many of them acquitted themselves in a 

 manner highly satisfactory to the committee and creditable to their 

 drivers and owners. It is true they were not all quite as perfectly 

 matched and broken as would be desirable, though it is but fair to 

 state that some of them exhibited a thoroughness and perfection of 

 discipline which would have done no discredit to the far-famed and 

 boasted oxen of the county of Worcester in old Massachusetts. But 

 as the discipline of working oxen is a matter of so much importance, 

 and as their intrinsic value depends in so great a degree on this point 

 we cannot but wish that more attention had been paid to it. It is 

 evident that the more perfect the docility and the education of the 

 cattle, the more work they are capable of performing in a given time, 

 and with the less expense and trouble on the part of the driver ; so 

 that the actual profitableness of oxen is seen to depend largely on the 

 maimer in which they perform their labor. 



The backing of oxen is an important matter, and the committee re- 

 gret that some of those exhibited had not been better trained in this 

 respect. A pair of oxen which will back well, will often place a 



*The third premium in class XII. native cattle, was given to the cow of George A. 

 Munsen, of Gordon, Onondaga county, at Rochester, 1843. 



He also took the premium as the best dairy cow of any breed at the same fair. It 

 was proved at the Onondaga county fair, that the same cow was a cross of native and 

 short horned Durham. 



