12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



quarters and shoulders very small and light, just sufficient to 

 carry her about ; and her carcass was a vehicle of enormous 

 capacity, capable of taking in a vast amount of food and 

 drink for the production of milk and butter, but of consum- 

 ing more food and more water, even, than any farmer can 

 afford to supply in these days, when we depend on hay at 

 twenty-live dollars a ton, and for water are at the mercy of 

 the water-board of a city. That was her structure. What 

 the feel of this animal was I will not undertake to say, because 

 I never put my hand upon her ; but, judging from her gen- 

 eral construction and outline, I should say that her feel Avas 

 hard ; that her hair was wiry ; and that her general condition 

 was such that, in these days of accurate and economical agri- 

 culture, a strict and accurate judge would have said, "I can- 

 not possibly feed such an animal on my short pastures and in 

 my expensive barns." It was only in those primitive days 

 that animals like the Oakes cow could be fed with any profit. 

 That was the way our fathers carried on their business. 

 They had very simple appliances. The shovels of the old 

 times, Avith which they did their work, would be rejected in 

 an instant in these days, and their farm Implements of every 

 description were rude, rough and irregular. In only one 

 single implement known here, were the farmers of Essex 

 County, in the early days, supplied in such a way that they 

 could win triumphs in any agricultural field ; and that was 

 the plough. In this connection it may be curious and inter- 

 esting to you to know that there is to-day in this county the 

 triumphant plough of the olden time, — the wooden mould- 

 board plough which won all the early prizes at the Essex 

 fairs. That old wooden mould-board plough, shod with iron, 

 with an upright share, which has ploughed its way satisfacto- 

 rily season after season here, and now reposes in the elegant 

 and well-ordered tool-room of the recent president of the 

 Essex County Society, General Sutton, is a sample of what the 

 skill of the Essex County farmer, in the olden time, did for 

 that simple implement of husbandry. That plough was curi- 

 ous in its construction, and I desire to call your attention to 

 it, in order that you may say to every plough-maker in this 

 land that this plough has certain principles in it that may be 

 followed everywhere. This plough, which was a favorite 



