FARMERS' CLUBS. 379 



My opinion is that barren cows or heifers can be used for labor, 

 and perhaps somelimes profitably, but if a cow gives milk, that is 

 all which can be profitably looked for fi'om her. It is very certain 

 that if the food consumed goes to make milk, it cannot at the same 

 time furnish force for labor. To expect a given amount of food to 

 be consumed in milk-making and also to give strength for labor, is 

 as reasonable as to expect the ashes from a given amount of coal 

 or wood to give out another equal amount of heat if put in the 

 grate in place of fresh fuel. 



If the farming community falls into no greater errors of practice 

 than by allowing cows to give milk and oxen to furnish labor, there 

 will be little to complain of, or to mend. 



Mr. Lucas. I will state what I know about the working of cows. 

 I can give an instance of a single pair which is owned in the town 

 of Cambridge. They measured, when six years old, six feet four 

 inches in girth. They were worked when a year old, and have 

 continued to work up to this time, but they are not worked now so 

 much as they were when they were younger. I think the owners 

 left off working them in the place of oxen some two years since, 

 I learn from them that they stood the hot weather much better than 

 oxen, that they would do more work on a cold day than any yoke 

 of oxen, haul more load than any oxen of their own or that were 

 in the neighborhood, and in addition to that, give a great deal more 

 milk ! (Laughter.) 



Mr. Jefferds. A cow which gives a good mess of milk has all 

 she can do. It is more than I can do to feed so that she will give 

 a large yield of milk and keep up her flesh at the same time. But 

 I have seen cows work. I have seen a team of cows that had 

 crossed the plains from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and had 

 drawn a wagon with a family and all their cooking utensils, and 

 had given milk all the way. They came through in as good con- 

 dition as ox-teams that came, and I was told by those who had- 

 driven cows across the plains in teams that they stood the work 

 better than oxen, and travelled better. 



QuESTiox. Did they give more milk ? 



Mr. Jefferds. They gave more milk — than oxen, and very little 

 more. If we use cows for labor we must not expect much milk. 



Adjourned to next day. 



