REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 83 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



LIVE STOCK. 



Horses. 



There are now at the Station five mares and two fillies, a 2-year-old 

 and a weanling, all registered French-Canadians besides two teams of from 2,601) 

 to 2,900 pounds weight per team, and a driver of about 1,000 pounds. Four of the 

 pure-bred mares are in foal to a stallion of the same breed. 



Exercise for colts. — Without feed of the right kind, and lots of it, it is impossible 

 to grow a young animal as he should be grown. But when fed heavily, and kept in 

 the stable during winter, a colt adds more weight to his body than the limbs can 

 support, and the legs go wrong. The only practical preventive is exercise. A pad- 

 dock, with a shed boarded on three sides and facing south, well bedded with straw, is 

 the right place to keep the youngsters. At the Station, a weanling filly was turned 

 out in such a place, every day of the winter, except three or four very stormy ones, 

 from about eight in the morning until five in the afternoon. There was from one 

 to three feet of snow in the paddock. She was fed with good clover hay, bran and 

 oats, and the day she was one year old, she weighed 730 pounds. As her dam's weight 

 is about 1,125 pounds, she should make a mare at least 100 pounds heavier than her 

 mother. 



Experiment wintering a horse at low cost. — The gelding which was used for this 

 experiment last year was in splendid shape for the season's work. He had received 

 one pound of hay from mixed grasses, one pound of straw, and one pound of swedes 

 per day for each hundred pounds of his own weight. The bulky ration and the root- 

 had a very beneficial effect on the digestive tract of the animal. 



The same experiment was made in 1912-13 with a very nervous mare, fifteen 

 years iold. She weighed 1,350 pounds on November 1, 1912, and 1,455 on March 31. 

 1913. If she goes through next season's work in good shape, it would seem advisable 

 for farmers who own more horses than they can U3e in winter time to try this way 

 of feeding the idle animals. 



Cattle. 



There are now at the Station, one bull, nine cows, five heifers, registered French- 

 Canadians; also ten cows, grades of the same breed, and four heifers out of these 

 by a pure-bred Canadian bull. 



The milk of each cow is weighed at each milking and a butter-fat test made each 

 month. The cows themselves are weighed at different times, so that it will be 

 interesting to see if the heifers of the grade cows, especially, will be improved in 

 size, also in milk productiveness, by the use of a good sire, and with rational feeding. 



Swine. 



There are now one aged and two young boars, nine breeding sows, and three gilts, 

 all registered Yorkshires. No feeding experiments have been started. 



Sheep. 



One ram and six ewes, registered Leicesters, were bought for this Station, and 

 will be shipped as soon as the weather gets mild enough to prevent injury to the 

 young ones, a number of which were dropped since the dams were purchased. 



Poultry. 



There are two pens of White Wyandottes, but as there is not room for more at 

 present, just a few chicks were hatched this year. 

 16— 6i 



