190 



CONDITION OF FARM-ANIMALS. 



The winter of 1872-73 wa.s extraoixliuary for the steady coldness and 

 dryness of its temperature, except on the Pacific slope, -ubere it was 

 unusually mild, and in Texas, -where cold storms prevailed to au unpre- 

 cedented extent. These conditions were reversed the past winter ; on 

 the Pacific slope it was one of the severest and most protracted ever 

 known, occasioning great suffering and loss of unsheltered and unfed 

 stock, while in Texas farm-animals, without either shelter or feed, have 

 not only escaped any considerable suffering from exposure and hunger, 

 but have improved in condition. In the remainder of the country the 

 winter was unusually mild, and in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, 

 especially, wet and changeable. This statement, however, must be 

 qualified by the fact that throughout ]N"orthern and Northwestern States 

 the month of oSIovember was the coldest and most snowy for many 

 years. This necessitated the bringing of stock into winter-quarters early 

 and a very long season for feeding. On the whole, the winter has been 

 exceedingly favorable for farm-animals wherever there were adequate 

 provisions for sheltering and feeding them in such exigencies as 

 required it. Except in a few limited localities affected by drought 

 the crops of grain, hay, and rough feed were sufficiently abundant to 

 take away all excuse for scant feeding, and, excepting the same locali- 

 ties, fall-feed was unusually good, so that cattle and sheep went into 

 winter-quarters in more than ordinary flesh and vigor. Owing to the 

 mildness of the winter it has required less than average fee'd to keep up 

 and improve their condition. And even in localities visited with scarcity, 

 by saving rough feed and supplementing any deficiencies by timely 

 exchange of surplus animals for provender, it has been practicable and 

 profitable to bring stock through the winter without depreciation. From 

 Laclede, Mo,, the condition of cattle and sheep is reported as better 

 than for many years, and the losses 50 per cent, less than the average. 



The reason is that the farmers took better care of their stock than ever before. Last fall feed 

 was so scarce that our farmei's feared they would be unable to get their animals through 

 the winter. The result has been that they saved their feed, took special care of their stock, 

 and have brought it through in better condition than ever before. 



But while the past winter has been exceedingly favorable for stock 

 properly sheltered and fed, it has been characterized by greater humid- 

 ity, and has been in that respect more trying to the unsheltered than 

 the preceding. In Kansas, Woodson reports sheep well cared for in 

 gocd condition, but others poor and dying of starvation, and cattle 

 miserably poor and rough-looking. The correspondent adds: 



No one pretends to bouse cattle here, and the cold, pelting rains and snow-storms have 

 laid their long tiugers on the poor brutes the past winter. Estimating the total number ot 

 cattle one year old and over at 14,5U0, and the loss in condition, both as to flesh and health, 

 at $4 per head, we must sustain a dead loss of $58,000. The recuperating process has not 

 yet commenced, and midsummer will be reached before the loss in flesh and vigor will be 

 made up, so that the season for growth and profit will necessarily be very short. 



The Miami report, representing cattle as " dried beef on foot, owing to 

 lack of proper shelter," and sheep as " thin and feeble for want of shel- 

 ter for them and for their feed," and the loss 10 per cent, greater than 

 the previous winter, states that the open, wet, changeable winter dam- 

 aged corn and hay (which is again damaged by being trampled in the 

 mud and dung, in the process of feeding) as well as cattle directly ; and 

 the conclusion is that " farm-stock endure the rigors of a cold, dry 

 winter much better than au open, wet one," which is, perhaps, equiva- 

 lent to saying that, as a rule, to winter stock without shelter, in North- 



