C4 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



necessary to shelter tliem and the rest of the herd. But the fanners of Mich- 

 igan are not those of Illinois, and how to save food in wintering stock must be 

 an important question to a great many of them. I am sorry that 1 have not 

 been able to find the data necessary to making an estimate of the probable 

 -waste of food in feeding cattle when exposed to the inclemency of our winter; 

 but I think that in reviewing the different sources of waste in such circum- 

 stances we will conclude tliat if the waste is not enormous, it is at least suffi- 

 ciently great to make it an object for every farmer to prevent as much of it 

 as may be in his power. The first source of waste with which we meet is the 

 heat required from the body to raise cold food ingested to its own temjicrature. 

 It must be evident to every one that all matters taken into the body must bo 

 brought to its temperature. If we drink water at 33° F., it will take up about 

 sixty-five degrees of heat for each unit of water in order to reach the tempera- 

 ture of our bodies, and at the expense of heat taken from the system. If we 

 drink tea or coffee at 150° F. we furnish the body with about 52° of heat for 

 each unit of water. One of the advantages of cooked or steamed food for 

 cattle is that we can feed it at or a little above the temperature of the body of 

 the animal; but a steaming apparatus is too expensive for every farmer who 

 has perliaps but ten or fifteen head of cattle. But this little is within the 

 reach of most farmers, viz. : furnishing their stock with water from a well or 

 living spring instead of from an ice-bound brook or lake. The other condi- 

 tions of waste of food in the animal we will find in the surroundings of the 

 animal and for the purpose of better studying these conditiona of waste, we 

 will compare the animal to a steam engine ; and modern physiology will justify 

 lis in assuming such a position. The activity of the animal is dependent on 

 oxydation or combustion, and the consequent evolution of heat, combined with 

 a certain amount of combustion of matters in the lungs; and we shall see 

 hereafter that preventing an undue escape of this evolved heat is an item of 

 true economy for the farmer. If we visit a properly managed manufacturing 

 establishment we will find that the proprietor has taken every precaution to 

 prevent the escape of heat before it has been used for his benefit. The fire 

 and boiler are surrounded by non-conducting material ; the boiler is made with 

 a series of tubes, through which the heated air is made to pass, thereby bring- 

 ing every unit of heat possible to the work of generating steam ; or in other 

 ■words, converting the heat into a motive power. But when we turn to the 

 aniinated engines of many farmers it would seem that the chances were in favor 

 of the escape of heat, and consequent waste of fuel or food. 



Let us now look at the conditions that affect unsheltered animals. In the 

 first place we find them at the mercy of cold winds ; every moment millions of 

 atoms of air are hurled past them, each one hungry for heat. It is true that 

 the animals are covered with a thick coat of hair or wool, which is a poor con- 

 ductor of heat, and the air does not get as much heat as it might ; but the 

 postures and actions of the animals afford us ample proof that a great deal too 

 much heat is carried away to be comfortable for them. But we will suppose 

 that it has rained for some time and the coat has become wet, which will have 

 rendered it a good conductor, and the air gathers plenty of heat as it passes, 

 and the animals gather themselves closer and closer together, seeming to try 

 to keep the little warmth they have. Again, the wind may blow little or not 

 at all, but after a long rain the weather has turned cold ; the wet coat, aside 

 from beijig a conductor of heat from the body, must be dried, and at the 

 expense of fuel furnished from the farmer's store of fodder. Who of us has 

 not experienced an evening in winter when it would seem that the clouds had 



