James Avery of Buckland, Massachusetts, made it his mission to raise the world’s largest oxen, and he succeeded: his largest ox, Mack, weighed 4,760 pounds. This postcard shows one measure of oxen strength, the weight pull. Oxen were harnessed to a sled loaded with weight. They were then urged to pull it a specified distance. Avery’s oxen broke the world record in the pull twice. Their heaviest load pulled was 11,284 pounds. James Avery exhibited his oxen from 1894 to 1906; eventually, he had raised six enormous animals. By 1906 his shows were no longer profitable and he stopped touring.