91 



cows is in Massachusetts and the lowest iu Kansas. The cost of win- 

 tering sheep is greatest in Massachusetts and least on the Pacific coast. 

 The quantity and quality of fodder, roots, wild hay, and other supple- 

 mentary feediug-matter are undetermined elements iu the problem of 

 winter-feeding of live stock. 



Increased Yalue. — Nearly all the States re])ort some increase in 

 value in all classes of farm-animals from winter-feeding. The only de- 

 crease in the value of horses is in Michigan, in which several counties 

 report an exceptional demaud in the fall for horses, causing an increase 

 of values at that period of the year. Cows and sheep are of lower 

 average value in spring in Mississippi and Louisiana ; cows scarcely 

 hold their own in Delaware. 



In New England the margin of differences is narrower in those coun- 

 ties where animals are expected to i)ay their expense of wintering 

 by work or by yield of milk. Horses in the neighborhood of Boston 

 bear a high average value, subject to trifling fluctuation in diflerent 

 parts of the year. In the rural districts, however, where the winter- 

 keep of animals is very partially compensated by use, there is a very 

 considerable difference in their value before and after wintering. This 

 increase of value amounts iu souie cases to over two-thirds the cost of 

 the food consumed, but the average is less than that. The value of the 

 manure produced is an unascertained factor in the i^roblem of wintering 

 stock, and is of variable influence upon the general result, from the fact 

 of its different treatment in different localities. The largest rate of in- 

 crease of values of horses and sheep is in New Hampshire and the 

 smallest in Massachusetts; of cows, the greatest is in Vermont and the 

 smallest in Massachusetts. 



The Middle States illustrate the same general principles. In New 

 Jersey the proximity of the great commercial and manufacturiug cities, 

 New York and Philadelphia, besides several large cities within her own 

 limits, gives rise to more winter employment for work-animals, which 

 renders the high cost of feeding of less importance in enhancing spriug 

 values. Animals steadily worked do not come ont of winter quarters in 

 as high condition as those stabled and fed. Hence in this State is found 

 the narrowest margin of increase in the value of horses, while the max- 

 imum is found in Delaware, where the opposite class of conditions pre- 

 vails. A medium range of increment is found in New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, whose large areas are less within the scope of those urban in- 

 fluences. A larger proportion of the cows in New Jersey are kept for 

 the winter supply of milk for the cities, the increased price of which, 

 during that season, is intended to cover the cost of keeping. Delaware 

 reports little, if any, increase of value, a fact which does not speak favor- 

 ably for the care of milch-cows in that State. New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania show greater margins of increase, from the fact that a smaller 

 jDroportion of their cows are productive during winter. New Jersey 

 fattens a large proportion of her sheep for the meat-market; hence the 

 actual increase of mutton causes an average increase of over 60 per cent, 

 in the counties reporting. The other States of this section report very 

 considerable margins, but less than New Jersey. 



On the South Atlantic seaboaxd, our correspondents, in counties 

 neighboring to Baltimore, decline to give estimates on this point, a fact 

 which indicates no great difference between fall and spring values. Of 

 other counties in Maryland it is noticeable that the greatest difference 

 is in Montgomery, on the Potomac Eiver. In Virginia, Accomac, on 

 the coast, reports but 10 per cent., while Mecklenburgh, on the south 

 border and considerably distant from the sea, presents the greatest dif- 



