“The farmers are commencing to see the mistake they have made in trying to run their farms with horses and doing away with the oxen,” a Bath butcher remarked recently. This man has heard of numerous cases of farmers going to buy oxen and gives as an important reason: “The horses are a great deal more expensive to purchase in the first place, cost more to feed and have to have a great deal more gear for the work. When they become aged, they cannot be disposed of for any considerable price. Oxen, with proper care, ought to advance in value every year and can certainly do as much work as horses.”

50 years ago, 1957

WASHINGTON – Congressmen spent considerable time complimenting themselves on how frugal they were, but even so they appropriated money at the rate of $700,000 a minute.

• A survey completed by the American Institute of Public Opinion finds that a sizable majority of adults in the North have no objection today to a woman teacher smoking while she’s away from the classrooms. Nor do they see any harm in teachers of either sex drinking in moderation while they are “off-duty.” But in the South, the number who disapprove of women teachers smoking is considerably larger, and Southerners vote “thumbs down” on the question of teachers drinking – even in moderation.

25 years ago, 1982

WASHINGTON – Consumers would rather buy clothing made in the United States than foreign-made garments, and they are concerned about imports displacing American jobs, a nationwide survey indicates. Two-thirds of 1,350 consumers interviewed by clothing and textile experts at the University of Missouri, Columbia, said they read labels to see where clothing is made, and almost two-thirds said they believe it is important to buy clothing made in the United States.

• Computer use in classroom instruction, a relative rarity three years ago, has now spread to half of all secondary schools, 14 percent of all elementary schools and 19 percent of other schools such as vocational institutions.