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of auimals declines toward spriug, from the fact that their owners, hav- 

 ing laid in too short supplies, are anxious to sell. In Lyon ordinary 

 horses and cattle lose 25 per cent, in weight; wintered on prairie-grass 

 alone, they lose 40 per cent., and 25 per cent, of them die. The general 

 tone of the reports shows a serious decline. In Nebraska, with the same 

 causes operative as in Kansas, the range of loss is much narrower, sel- 

 dom exceeding 20 per cent. On the Pacific coast there is a general 

 falling off of weight during winter, the loss of some counties reaching 

 an average of 20 per cent. To this, however, there are exceptions. la 

 San Joaquin, Cal., stock of all sorts held tbeir own and looked well at 

 the close of winter. Our Oregon reports indicate a decline, though the 

 rate is not estimated. 



In the Territories are found some localities with mild climate and 

 abundant winter-grasses where, in ordinary seasons, live stock do well. 

 But in most cases reported there is a decline in weight amounting, in 

 several counties, to one-third. In years of unusual severity the losses of 

 farm-animals are appalling. The merciful policy of good food and 

 shelter will yet be found the most profitable. 



Our March returns afford unwelcome evidence of the fact that Ameri- 

 can farmers, as a rule, calculate that their farm-animals, with the ex- 

 ception of working-stock, milch-cows, and auimals fattening for market, 

 shall come out of winter-quarters reduced in weight and depressed in 

 condition. Numerous exceptions are found in the older States, where 

 the higher economies of farming have begun to enforce attention, but 

 these exceptional cas(^ constitute a minority even in their own sections. 

 A few farmers in the West and South illustrate this general policy of de- 

 pletion by its extreme but legitimate results. The care of stock-cattle 

 ard sheep, and often of railch-cows, is a responsibility which they calmly 

 cast back upon Providence, caring very little for the suffering inflicted 

 upon their brute dependents, whose gaunt frames and uncomplaining 

 misery awaken no sentiments of pity or compunctions of conseience. 

 Their shriveled carcasses are allowed to rot upon the range, or are hastily 

 removed from the field without even suggesting any idea of personal 

 responsibility for this waste of anirual life. The number of such farmers, 

 in whom a blind and stupid greed has paralyzed the sentiments of 

 humanity, is happily small, and growing smaller as the true principles 

 of production become better understood. 



But leaving out of view such extreme cases, the facts elicited by our 

 March returns give considerable ground for sundry sharp criticisms by 

 foreigners upon this branch of American farming, criticisms which one 

 of our leading writers is compelled to acknowledge as just. The general 

 disposition to allow farm-animals to decline in weight and condition 

 during winter-feeding springs from inconsideration and neglect rather 

 than from any lack of humane feeling. It is based upon a false econ- 

 omy. The food necessary to keep up the standard of condition during 

 winter will be much less than that which will be required to restore the 

 depleted carcass in the spring. A very considerable proportion of the 

 loss of weight of animals during winter results from wasteful feeding 

 and lack of shelter. The drafts upon the animal heat and vitality of 

 unsheltered beasts amount to a third or a half more of feeding- material 

 than would keep them in good condition under cover. But few, if any, 

 of the farmers who expose their animals to the inclemency of the season 

 make any extra provision of food ; they seem rather to diminish the 

 feeding in proportion to the exposure. Eveu the pittance doled out to 

 animals wintered in the field is largely wasted by improper manage- 

 ment. 



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