Like most Chesapeake plantations, Pemberton used a wide range of domestic animals for food, clothing, transportation, and commercial products, and most animals served multiple purposes. Cattle provided milk, meat, hides to tan, and horns for products such as combs and powder horns. Chickens and geese controlled insects, laid eggs, and provided down feathers for bedding. Sheep provided wool for cloth and meat for the table, while hogs provided meat to be smoked and sold. Most animal products were both consumed on the plantation and sold to market. Oxen were particularly important because they were used not only to plow fields but also to transport people and goods, and they were usually raised in pairs from birth to prepare them for a life of team labor. In the 18th century, poultry that scrounged for food in the barnyard was sometimes called "dunghill fowl."