80 



this deficiency in numbers has lessened the labors of the Commit- 

 tee, and verifies the good old proverb, " There can hardly be a 

 great evil -without a little good." Allot' which is respectfully sub- 

 mitted by 



JOHN S. SLEEPER, Chairman. 

 Dedham, Sept. 27, 18G0. 



REPORT ON WORKING OXEN. 



[This Report was accidentally omitted from the volume of Trans- 

 actions for 1859, and is therefore inserted in the present volume, 

 as it contains suggestions of great practical importance.] 



The Committee on Working Oxen have attended to the duty 

 assigned them, and submit the following Report : — 



In making up our Report, your Committee feel called upon by 

 a sense of duty which we owe the cause of Agriculture, to speak 

 plainly of some of the defects in the training of working oxen, and 

 to make some suggestions in relation to the general subject, which, 

 if faithfully followed by every farmer, would greatly aid him in 

 making the patient ox a true and faithful help-meet in the heavy 

 and all important operations of the farm. 



At the trial for drawing and backing, your Committee were sat- 

 isfied that there was strength enough for the draught, but not that 

 early and thorough training necessary to make the backing easy, 

 and they were unanimous in the opinion that the load was at least 

 five hundred pounds too heavy to test the strength and training of 

 the team. Farmers do not often load their cattle as is required 

 of them at the Exhibition, and hence we find perhaps only one pair 

 in a hundred that do the work with ease and credit to themselves. 

 AVe think that the strength and training would be more fully tested 

 by a less weight. 



The same early, mild and faithful training which is so essential 

 in a well ordered family, will apply with equal force in the educa- 

 tion of the brute, and will make the patient ox truly a help-meet 

 which the enterprising farmer would not exchange for any other 

 team. We Avould recommend the addition to the list of a premium 

 for the earliest and best trained pair of three years old steers. 



For the Committee, 



WALTER IL FISHER, Chairman. 

 Franklin, Dee. 1, 1859. 



