CATTLE HUSBANDRY. 81 



vicinity, let each farmer who can afford it get one or more fe- 

 males of the same kind, and the natural competition in breed- 

 ing and raising such stock will soon produce an improvement 

 upon the sire and dams, and put money in the owners' pockets. 



Mrs. Glass's first receipt for cooking a hare was — to catch it. 

 Having now got our animals, ihe next question is, how shall we 

 take care of them ? We manage our bulls badly. We either 

 let them (if scrubs) range about at will, or if pure bloods keep 

 them up, fed high and not exercised, so that their usefulness is 

 over before they attain maturity , and their progeny wanting in 

 constitution. Our Puritan ancestors did better. We find no 

 mention of horses among them until 1644, and it was not an 

 uncommon thing to ride on bulls. When John Alden went to 

 Cape Cod to marry Priscilla Mullins, he covered his bull with 

 broadcloth and rode on his back. When he returned, he placed 

 his wife there and led the bull home by the ring in his nose. 

 Longfellow, in his poem, relates this incident, but substitutes a 

 milk-white steer for the bull — a poetical license, but a depart- 

 ure from the true history. Another incident of the story was, 

 that Alden at first went to ask the hand of Priscilla for his friend, 

 the renowned Capt. Miles Standish. The father referred him to 

 the daughter, who listened with attention, but fixing her eyes 

 on Alden's handsome face, said, " Prithee, John, why do you 

 not speak for yourself? " Such frankness John could not resist 

 in those good old Colony times ! 



But if we don't feel inclined to ride on bulls we should early 

 subject them to the yoke and harness, and work them double or 

 single. Reasonable amount of work will keep them in better 

 health, prolong their usefulness and improve their progeny ; a 

 first-rate place for the " gentleman," as I heard a young woman 

 style the head of the herd, is in the horse-power, where he can 

 earn for two hours a day his living and improve his health by 

 cutting wood, thrashing the grain, chaffing the hay, <fec. He 

 soon gets accustomed to the work, and bellows for it as little 

 boys are said to do for sugar-coated pills, though I never heard 

 of the latter making the outcry but once. A pair of Jersey, 

 Devon or Ayrshire bulls make a neat team to handle, and become 

 very docile, and in fact regular work will take the " old Harry " 

 out of any animal. It is only idleness that breeds vice, and for 

 idle horns and hands his sable majesty generally finds something 



