Before electric and gas-powered machinery, draft horses and oxen cleared and plowed fields, pulled wagons, and turned mills. Ranchers kept other animals to provide food, leather, wool, and fat, and animal fat was used for cooking and making soap. Every animal had a purpose. Cows supplied meat, milk, cheese, and butter. Chickens and turkeys provided meat, eggs, and feathers for stuffing quilts and pillows. Sheep fleece was cut, cleaned, combed, and spun into yarn for clothing and blankets. Cats killed mice and rats that ate and soiled grain stored for livestock and the family. Dogs herded livestock and guarded the barnyard at night, protecting domestic animals from wild predators. On this ranch in 1900, a ten year old's chores would have included feeding and watering animals, milking the cow, brushing horses, collecting eggs from the chicken coop, and plucking a chicken for dinner.