STEERS MORE TITAN TWO YEARS OLD. 27 



premium and praise to the kind and degree of training exhibited in 

 these cattle. It is not so much mere capacity for draught, as an 

 educated nimbleness in performing light work, that farmers in general 

 require. 



The peculiar use and advantage of this quality is often experienced 

 in jobs where much turning, halting, backing, etc., is required ; as 

 pulling stones, stumps and tlie like, from the ground, and hauHng logs 

 together in the woods. 



In winter work the constant liability t!) injury, which all working 

 cattle are more or less under, is also rerluced nearly to the point of 

 safety. When we reflect how generally cattle in these employments 

 are grossly abused, it seems hardly possible to overestimate the value 

 of those habits which tend to avprt, if tliey do not actually insure them 

 against the accidents which impend, and the abuses of teamstership 

 which befall. 



How have our hearts bled with pity, and alternately burned with 

 indignation and shame, at the sight of those sad wrecks of once noble 

 structures of meat, muscle and bone, while reflecting how great a por- 

 tion of the lost strength was a wasteful expenditure incident to their 

 lack of training, their awkwardness, and the cruelties thereby entailed. 



By the rules of the Society, all persons are excluded from compe- 

 tition as teamsters, except those under age ; and your committee felt 

 somewhat embarrassed in the performance of their duties as arbiters in 

 the matter of teamstership, from the fact that while they did not feel 

 bound by any law of the Society to award an undeserved premium, 

 they did feel bound to act in deference to the apparently indifferent 

 standard created and recognized by preceding committees. 



It is hoped, therefore, that competitors, and all others concerned, 

 will by these qualifying remarks, be able to discern the standard 

 which your committee recognize and feel bound to uphold. 



The good teamster must have an apprehensive mind, a clearly de- 

 fined purpose, and a strong will. Cattle that have been educated 

 under the influence of these qualities can be relied on to put forth their 

 utmost strength, from a habit of voluntary obedience — without the 

 stimulation of whip, or any noisy demonstrations. No being, human 

 or quadruped, can do its best under stress of violence — it precludes 

 confidence and courage, which are the truest guarantees of the highest 

 endeavor in man or beast. 



Who knows but a glimmering belief that ha can do a thing, must, 

 even in the animal, precede the actual exploit 'i 



In the exercise of backing there was, with a single exception, a 

 failure to run the load back rapidly and straight, which we attributed 

 chiefly to a single cause, viz : the driver's standing too near the cattle's 

 heads, forward, and rather scaring them back by a fussy, impetuous 

 manner, and vigorous whipping, than setting them the example by 

 baching himself. W^e never saw a pair so managed but would make 

 unequal exertions in spite of the anxious driver, and iving out so as to 



