266 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



drove, wliile the inferior found a dull market. One pair of 

 three years old steers in the latter were sold for sixty dollars, 

 while another pair, in the former, of the same age, weighing 

 8,000 pounds, were disposed of at 8140. Suppoi^ing tliat the 

 difference per head between the two droves, in consequence of 

 superior keeping, blood, or botli, was two dollars, there would 

 have been a gain in that drove of two hundred, of four 

 hundred dollars over the other. 



Believing tliat as the steer is, so the ox will be, your committee 

 cannot help urging the importance of raising good steers for 

 early training and work. 



Your committee also would suggest for your consideration, 

 that a premium be offered for work best performed by sieers or 

 oxen without the touch of lash or goad. 



W. F. Wheeler, Chairman. 



HOUSATONIC. 



From the Report of the Committee on Working' Oxen. 



The ox is valuable, first for his labor, second, fur beef. Did 

 the value of the ox cease with his labor, many of those points 

 that are now bred for, might be neglected without loss of power. 

 It is a fact, that the ox that is heavy in his coarse parts, and 

 light in those that are most valuable when slauglitered, is often 

 a courageous and an enduring worker ; while the ox of perfect 

 form possesses equal powers of endurance. He is first sought 

 after for service, commanding a remunerating price for raising, 

 and when his work is done, and he is driven a beautiful fat ox 

 into market, finds a ready sale. 



Farmers should not breed oxen for their labor, but for their 

 flesh, or in other words a model .ox will perform prom])tly all 

 necessary labor. 



Second, farmers should breed such oxen as will yield the 

 most flesh, and the least bone, or in other words, f-iich oxen as 

 will carry the most and best beef to the shambles. If the 

 position taken is correct, the farmer should not, need not play 

 " Blind Man's Buff," but with an unsealed eye, acquaint 

 himself with the principles of breeding, learn what family of 

 aniiuils possess the most good points, what cross cm ba made 

 that will sustain and develop all the points necestary to cjnsti- 



