A landscape divided by a stream. On the left, a desolate wasteland with a man cutting down the remaining apple tree while several other men attack a cow with knives or drink its blood. The cow bears on its rump a large stamp, alluding to the Stamp Act of 1765. To the right a cow garlanded by flowers and standing on a yoke is milked by a woman while the milk is drunk from bowls by women and children. Other children dance in the background and a boy picks apples in a tree. Contrasts England's harsh rule of her American colonies with benign and more profitable policies, possibly those of Holland
Description:
Title from item., Sheet cropped into plate mark with some loss of text., Date from British Museum catalogue., Text in plate below image: "Let us not cut down the tree to get at the fruit. Let us stroke and not stab the cow, for her milk and not her blood can give us real nourishment and strength.", and Mounted on paper 30 x 48 cm.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain and America.
Subject (Topic):
Colonies, Children, Eating & drinking, Dancers, Milking, Cows, and Apple trees