No. 85.] 137 



Most barn-yards are too large^ and many are without water, and 

 cattle are obliged to travel half or three-quarters of a mile for drink, 

 and then allowed to wander in the streets or fields for the rest of the 

 day, depositing their droppings where they are of no use, and beyond 

 the reach of the owner. This is decidedly wrong ; if manure is 

 worth any thing, it is worth saving ; and those who are so prodigal of 

 their manure, should go to England, and see thousands of the poor 

 gaining a livelihood by picking up the droppings of animals by the 

 road-side, and selling it to the workers of the soil. 



Barn-yards should be as small as the stock kept will permit, and 

 care should be taken that descending grounds in the neighborhood 

 do not send their surface waters into them. All surplus straw that 

 cannot be eaten by the stock, should be liberally spread over the yard 

 and under the sheds, to be beaten up and to absorb the liquids ; being 

 composed of hollow cylinders, when once filled with liquid manures, 

 it holds it by capillary attraction, and will not part with it, even in 

 heavy rains, and therefore is an important agent of absorption. 



But after all, the true way to do the thing right — to make manure 

 and then to save it — is, to stable and litter the animals, and make the 

 manure under cover, and keep it there ; but when inconvenient, it 

 may be thrown out in heaps, the exposure to rains affecting it but lit- 

 tle, in comparison to its lying scattered over an acre of ground. 



It is a well ascertained fact, that the quantity of food required by 

 the animal system to keep up its natural heat, is greatly influenced 

 by heat and cold. Man or beast, when exposed to excessive cold, 

 require one-third more food than when protected by housing or arti- 

 ficial heat ; the animal stove^ like the mechanical one, requires more 

 fuel in cold weather than in warm ; this is palpable to every obser- 

 ver, with respect to his own person, and is equally applicable to the 

 whole animal creation, and in strict accordance with the eductions of 

 philosophy. How important, then, in the fattening process, or in the 

 mere subsistence of animals, on the score of economy, is protection 

 and warmth for the farm stock — to say nothing on the score of hu- 

 manity — and when the increased value of the manure is taken into 

 consideration, how important becomes the stabling and shed protect- 

 ing system. 



Another method is practiced with great economy, by the use of 

 feeding sheds ; they should be from twenty to twenty -four feet in 



