Dan and Duke, their owner/handler Mark Winslow, and a volunteer plow a field at the Sweat-Morin Homestead. Photo: Barbara Sutcliffe
By Lawrence Furbish
Dan and Duke, two dark reddish Devon steers, visited the Sweat-Morin Homestead on School Street last Saturday to demonstrate how colonial farmers tilled their fields in the 18th century. Their owner, Mark Winslow of West Falmouth, adroitly handled them, navigating a small field beside the homestead barn while the plow was manned, for the most part, by Drew Conroy, a professor of animal husbandry at the University of New Hampshire.
Winslow owns a herd of Devon cattle that he takes to shows and exhibitions like this around New England. Devons are a breed from England that arrived in New England at the same time as the Pilgrims. They are a versatile breed that can be used for milk, beef, or labor. They can be trained but also require constant practice, according to Winslow. Cattle teams are only called oxen after they are 4 years old and have been well trained as draft animals. An ox is not a breed of cattle.
After plowing several furrows, Conroy asked for a volunteer from the crowd to take over. It’s difficult to plow in a straight line and keep up with the steers. Plowing a one-acre field would take a colonial farmer and his team nearly a whole day of very hard labor. A half-hour on the plow was more than enough for this volunteer.
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