AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 369 



Our working-oxen now are only 14,571, as against 46,611 

 in 1850. Lamentable as it is, the ox, as a steady force on 

 the farm, is being sujDersedecl by the horses, which went from 

 42,216 in 1850, to 59,629 in 1880, valued in 1845 at !^53 

 each, and amounting to $2,237,448, while the horses of 1880, 

 at a valuation of ^110 each, amounted to $6,501,561 ; showing 

 a gain in horse-flesh alone, on farms, of over $4,264,000, which 

 certainly indicates a healthy decline in that direction. 



At that time we were just bi"eeding to horses of Morgan 

 stock, having in the western and northern parts of the State 

 the Cock of the Rock, Bulmeh, Sherman, and Woodbury 

 Morgans. 



At the East they had, among other thoroughbreds, some of 

 the Messenger blood, and a grand horse called " Bellfounder," 

 imported by Col. Jaques of the " Ten Hills Farm " at Charles- 

 town, v/hich left a fine strain of blood. 



In later years we are breeding, more than then for speed, 

 fast driving-horses, and seek to accomplish this, and to secure 

 more endurance (bottom), by crossing with horses thorough- 

 bred, or as nearly so as fast trotters can be found. 



Our draught-horses, too, are being improved by an infusion 

 of Perchoron blood, imported by the Massachusetts Society, 

 which has proved very successful, and also by Cl3'desdales 

 and Normans, which now come to us from Canada and the 

 West. 



SHEEP. 



In the matter of sheep-growing and wool-producing, we 

 have shown such a great falling-off, and such j)ersistent neg- 

 ligence in this most profitable branch of our farming, as to 

 have branded us as failing in our agriculture ; and this, more 

 than any other single thing, has brought reproach upon our 

 skill, judgment, and foresight. 



In 1838 we had 384,614 sheep, which sheared 1,056,327 

 pounds of wool ; we had, in 1875, but 58,773 sheep, shearing 

 206,935 pounds of wool: showing, in less than forty years, a 

 decrease of 325,841 sheei) and 850,000 pounds of wool, or 

 at the rate of over 8,000 sheep annually. 



Tliis diminution was mostly among the Saxonies a-nd Me- 

 rinos, which, at that early date, constituted two-thirds of all 

 the sheep kept. It was thought impossible to compete with 

 the West and South in raising those sheep and growing fine 



