47 



drawing and backing qualities were taken into consideration, 

 and all were subjected to the same tests. Nearly every horse 

 pulled well, but only two horses came up to the committee's 

 standard in backing. 



The purchase of a horse adapted to all the varied wants and 

 uses of a farm is a matter of more than ordinary importance to 

 the farmer who attempts it, for in this one animal are to be 

 combined many and diversified qualities of superior excellence, 

 and he who succeeds in such an undertaking is to be congrat- 

 ulated upon his acquisition. 



It is hardly a generation ago when oxen were almost uni- 

 versally used upon the farms of Essex Co., but in that short 

 space of time what a change has been wrought, what a revolu- 

 tion, so to speak, has there been in our whole system of 

 agriculture. The iron bands of rails that have been extend- 

 ing through the broad prairies of the western country, now 

 bring to the very doors of our New England homes, at a less 

 price than we can raise them, the very products that our fath- 

 ers, and we ourselves, thought to be the crops upon which we 

 must put the most dependence. The farmer, who in previous 

 years fatted his oxen during the winter months, and "turned 

 them" at a good profit after the spring work was over, now 

 finds that every market is filled with "Chicago dressed beef," 

 and his accustomed profit has turned into an actual loss. But 

 the enterprising Yankee farmer does not sit supinely down and 

 mourn for the good times of the past. We accept the fact that 

 "times cliange and men change with them," if they wish to 

 keep atop in this progressive age. We realize that it is im- 

 possible to compete with the west and south in the production 

 of corn, potatoes, pork and beef ; hence a change is necessitat- 

 ed if we wish to make our business profitable. Fortunately a 

 ready market for the more perishable crops, or those costly of 

 transportation is always to be found in the large manufacturing 

 towns, by which we are encircled ; so the crops are changed, 

 the oxen go, have gone, I almost said, and the horse takes and 

 more than fills their place, for not only is the heavy farm work 



