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"Avery Oxen" Poster

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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When James Avery of Buckland, Massachusetts, arrived in town with his giant oxen, he would hire advertisers to promote him and his giant oxen. This poster promises that visiting the giant animals would "please the Ladies and Children," and other promotional material reassured visitors that the oxen were gentle and well-behaved. <BR> <BR>Oxen had long been used as draft animals on farms. In the 1820s American farmers were beginning to use more horses. Horses could be ridden and were faster. Elsewhere, they were better suited for the larger farms of the west. Oxen began to become rarer all over the United States and were almost entirely replaced by horses by 1900.

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