44 

 STEERS. 



Your Committee, appointed to examine and award pre- 

 miums upon Steers of three-years, two-years and trained 

 Steers respectively, have attended to that duty and report: 



There were eight entries of three-years-old steers, all of 

 which were excellent, and had received good training, so as 

 to be very well broke to the yoke, and for color, symmetry of 

 form and good matches, can seldom be excelled, or even 

 equalled in that number of pairs. But your Committee found 

 that although all performed well, there was a difference in 

 the perfection and the ease with which they performed 

 their several tasks. There was not much choice in their 

 drawing, but in backing there was a great difference, and as 

 this is considered a very essential qualification in a yoke of 

 oxen, it was made more of a test than the draft. Mr. Josiah 

 Page's steers exhibited as near to perfection as is often 

 witnessed in cattle of any age or weight. We therefore award 

 him the first premium of $4,00; and to Henry Boyles, of 

 Princeton, and Joel Hay ward, of Ashby, the remaining pre- 

 miums of $3,00, and $2,00 for competing next in degrees 

 of excellence. 



Of two-years-old steers, ten pairs contended for prem- 

 ium, and three were for exhibition only. It was an array 

 of a rising generation of oxen in miniature, that bid fair 

 to eclipse their predecessors, if their future is sustained 

 by good training, good keeping, good treatment and proper 

 development as well as their present justifies us in predict- 

 ing of them. Your Committee would gladly have given 

 premiums to all, for all seemed to claim the utmost appro- 

 bation. In these steers was evinced the care that had been 

 taken to blend the different breeds of Devon and Durham 

 with the Native, in order to produce the best race of grades 

 to be attained ; and in awarding the premiums, preference 

 was had to the promise of future usefulness, rather than to 

 future size or beauty. No department of our show is of more 

 importance than this, for unless we have good steers we can 



