38 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of^ twenty pounds of meadow hay will, I think, make larger 

 paunches, and keep fuller stomachs, than thirty pounds of 

 early-cut upland hay: this is why it is valuable to feed with 

 large quantities of grain ; and for animals at rest it does not 

 take as much to keep them full. 



Why is it that dry cows and young stock, classed as ani- 

 mals at rest, are often so poor in the spring, when fed on 

 salt-marsh and meadow hay? It is because, though classed 

 with animals at rest, they have no opportunity to rest : an 

 animal cannot rest unless it is comfortable. On one of the 

 coldest mornings of last winter I went to a neighboring 

 town for hay. At the barn where I loaded, I saw cattle eat- 

 ing the same kind of hay that I was after : they were very 

 poor, and looked as though they were growing poorer. 

 Why ? The barn was very open and cold, — nearly as cold 

 as out doors, — the hips and sides of the cattle were covered 

 with frozen manure : they were curled up and shivering with 

 the cold. It made my teeth chatter to look at them. And, 

 when I asked for some water for my horses, they told me that 

 their stock drank out of a hole back of the barn ; but horses 

 not used to it would not drink it : they would bring me some 

 from the house. It is not strange the stock was poor ; but it 

 is strange that they were alive. Now, look at the conditions 

 under which I fed the same kind of hay. The same morn- 

 ing, with the thermometer below zero out of doors, the one 

 hanging behind our cows stood at forty degrees above zero ; 

 the cows were clean, and they had clean and dry beds to lie 

 on ; they had an opportunity three times a day to drink as 

 much good well-water as they wanted (temperature of the 

 water about forty-six degrees) ; and they had the privilege 

 of drinking in the barn, where it was warm. The cows were 

 comfortable ; they were at rest : and under these conditions 

 the ten-dollar hay kept them in fair condition, at a cost of 

 ten cents per day. 



Last year the writer advised those accustomed to feeding 

 salt and meadow hay, with the result of poor stock in the 

 spring, to buy cotton-seed-meal to help utilize the carbo- 

 hydrates in the poor hay. But, after another year's experience 

 and observation, my first advice to all such is. Keep your 

 stock warm, and give them all the good water that they need, 

 and see if the quality of your hay is not good enough to keep 

 animals that are comfortable, and at rest, in fair condition. 



