82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



oxen that are well broke, at about four years old, calculat- 

 ing that they will pay their way until they are five or six 

 years old. We keep enough of them so that every year we 

 can take out one or two pairs. I have five pairs now. I 

 believe that in some directions in farming we should go back 

 instead of going ahead. I am entirely ignorant of the sur- 

 roundings of this territority, but I presume that there are a 

 great many farmers who are doing all their work with horses ; 

 and it is one of the things that I think altogether wrong. I 

 do not believe that any farmer, no matter where he is, or 

 what he is doing, can afibrd to farm it in any other way than 

 by oxen. In the first place, the wear and tear is nothing to 

 what it is with horses. 



Question. How do you do your mowing? 



Mr. BuEGESS. Do your mowing with horses, if you 

 please. If you are on a small farm, where you are cutting 

 only eight or ten tons of hay, that is another thing. But 1 

 presume there are farmers in this section who are keeping two 

 or three horses to do their work, where one horse would do 

 all the work that is necessary. Have one horse to do all the 

 horse labor that is necessary on the farm, and oxen to do the 

 rest of it. The most thrifty farmer we have in our town is 

 an ox man, and every once in two or three years, or oftener, 

 he takes off his oxen and has some steers to take their places. 

 Seven years is as good an age as any to take them off. We 

 give them plenty of hay and four quarts of meal a day. A 

 farmer who cuts 100 tons of hay cannot afibrd to be without 

 a pair of oxen, in my opinion. Of course, I know that you 

 will not all agree with that ; but I can draw hay cheaper 

 with oxen than I can with horses. I can harness them 

 cheaper, and the wear and tear is a great deal less. There 

 is no time when you can feed an animal so cheaply and 

 profitably with meal as you can when he is on grass. You 

 may not think so, but I know it is a fact that he will put on 

 two pounds with meal easier than ho will put on one without 

 it. With corn at 60 cents a bushel and hay at $20 a ton 

 there is no feed so cheap as meal. 



Mr. West. I think if we are to follow the suggestion of 

 the essayist, we should make somewhat of a specialty of 

 breeding. That is, if we live near a city, there are people 



