WORKING OXEN. 279 



from injudicious treatment on the removal of her calf. Not 

 recognizing the claims of the butcher as superior to her own, 

 this removal outrages her instincts, and the subsequent attempt 

 to rob her of the aliment which, to her seeming, belongs wholly 

 to her offspring, is but adding insult to injury. That she " with 

 anger, should resent the proffered wrong," by the use of such 

 weapons as nature gave her, is not strange. But, that her keeper, 

 claiming to be a reasonable being, should deem such manifesta- 

 tions on her part deserving of punishment, or make them a 

 warrant for similar exhibitions of ill temper on his part, or rest 

 his claim to manliness upon his ability to out-kick his frightened 

 dependant, is strange, " passing strange ; " yet many a heifer, 

 otherwise gentle, has been frenzied by just such brutality, until 

 she has become an inveterate kicker, and been rendered thereby 

 almost worthless. The act of milking, carefully performed, is 

 a relief to any animal when the milk veins are distended ; and if 

 her keeper can but possess himself in patience till she recognizes 

 the act as a friendly one, she will soon learn to submit to the 

 process quietly and even to seek it gladly. 



Alden S. Bradford, Chairman. 



AVOKKDTO OXEK. 



WORCESTER- NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



It is with a good deal of pleasure that your committee find 

 themselves able to put on record the fact of an increasing inter- 

 est in working oxen. We have often wished that our farmers 

 might possess that hearty and entire devotion to the interest of 

 cattle training, which seems to characterize the lovers of horse 

 flesh. All employments are yet to be tried, and awarded accord- 

 ing as they are of use ; and when that time comes, the training 

 of working oxen will be elevated to that position which of right 

 it occupies in scientific agriculture. 



It has seemed to be our mission to at least aid, during the 

 past twelve years, in placing ox training on this elevated basis, 



