NEAT STOCK. 209 



were required to drive their teams within certain bounds 

 marked by stakes, and as near as possible without striking the 

 stakes, and then back up to a given mark ; all of which required 

 much patience and skill on the part of the drivers as well as 

 strength and docility on the part of the oxen. 



This process was entirely new in our county, and unknown 

 to the competitors until the morning of the show. We are much 

 gratified in being able to state, that not a murmur or a word of 

 dissatisfaction was heard from any competitor with this new 

 and somewhat perplexing mode of trial. In all past trials of 

 this kind the competitor has been required to draw his loaded 

 cart up a hill or inclined plane of about five degrees. The 

 drivers, oxen and spectators seemed well pleased with the 

 change. In the judgment of your committee this mode of trial 

 is preferable. In the first place, it is nearer common practice 

 on the farm ; secondly, it is decidedly more merciful, and the 

 maxim should be indelibly stamped on every yoke, " A merciful 

 man is merciful to his beast." One of your committee, at least, 

 believes it would be of more real service to the noble, patient 

 and useful ox, to have it stamped on his horns also. Only in 

 one or two instances in this trial was the undue use of the lash 

 observed. Yet, in several more, there was indubitable evidence 

 of bad, if not cruel, home practice. We refer to tlie idea which 

 all, or nearly all, our competitors seemed to have acquired on 

 these trials, namely, that the superior art of backing a load was 

 the principle on which their merit was to be decided, when, in 

 fact, equality of match and docility of temper should ever be 

 first regarded. 



Harvey Dodge, Chairman. 



WORCESTER NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee . 



Bulls. — We suppose all will admit that he who rears a valu- 

 ble bull does much more to improve the stock of his neighbor- 

 hood, and the whole community, than the farmer who raises a 

 first class heifer, or even five or ten heifers ; for good bulls, on 

 an average, even in New England, where stock raising is car- 



27* 



