DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING. 29 



general in this region, while you would, indirectly at least, 

 advance the interest of the Plymouth County Society in 

 particular. If you accomplish the first object, as we know 

 you will, the second will follow as certainly as the harvest 

 does the seed-time ; and whilst he who invited you will feel 

 well repaid, the whole of Plymouth County, the home of our 

 fathers, and so important a part of the right shoulder of our 

 grand old Commonwealth, will receive lasting benefit from 

 your few da3's' sojourn in the heart of the Old Colony. 



The Chairman then introduced Dr. George Austin 

 BowEN of Woodstock, Conn., who read the following lec- 

 ture on 



THE DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING OF DOMESTIC 



ANIMALS. 



In presenting this paper to your consideration, I do not 

 advance any new theories or methods of my own, but con- 

 tent rhyself with a brief survey of the subject, presenting 

 only a few of the leading facts, and leave to jou as intelli- 

 gent farmers to elaborate them by your discussion. 



To my mind this is a very practical question for New- 

 England farmers to consider ; for the old methods of farm- 

 ing, which were only allowable in a new country, are rapidly 

 passing away. The accumulated fertilit}^ of centuries has 

 been wasted by a few generations ; and the question now 

 comes imperatively to every thoughtful tiller of the soil, 

 how to maintain his flocks and herds upon the lands de- 

 spoiled by his fathers. Happily, science is ready to aid us in 

 this matter, and is now developing the man}' questions per- 

 taining to agriculture. The successful farmer of the future 

 will be the scientific man, who will accept the facts pre- 

 sented, and who will know and be able to tell the reason 

 why, for all that he does. The world grows in this direction ; 

 and we must keep pace with it, or lose our position. The 

 man who simply throws an armful of hay three times a day 

 before his stock, and considers himself the gainer by all that 

 they do not eat, will be unable to successfully compete with 

 liis neighbor who selects those articles of food which he 

 knows contain the greatest amount of nutriment at the least 



