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ern Vermont and New Hampshire, would involve less suffering and dis- 

 aster than in Southern Missouri and Kansas. That from Ottawa states 

 that the well sheltered and fed are in excellent condition, the loss not 

 exceeding 1 per cent. " Of those with plenty of feed, but without shel- 

 ter, the loss is probably 10 per cent. ; of those without shelter and with 

 little or no feed, 30 per cent." And yet, owing to the fact that " more 

 care was taken to provide feed and shelter, the loss was only half as 

 great as the previous winter." That from Neosho represents that " cattle 

 are very thin for want of food, and unless grass comes soon many will 

 die," for the reason that " farmers did not put up a sufiBciency of hay, 

 though there was an abundance to be had for the cutting." 



But the most disastrous results from failure to provide for sheltering 

 and feeding stock have been west of the Eocky Mountains. In each of 

 the fifteen counties reporting from California, and in ten out of eleven 

 reporting from Oregon, cattle and sheep are below average in condi- 

 tion. The reasons for leaving stock to the provisions of nature, unas- 

 sisted by man, for pro|tection and food in winter, are stated in the re- 

 turn from Mendocino, California : 



We have four or five consecutive vplnters in wliich sheep and cattle will do well without 

 any feed or housing; but occasionally this is changed, and we have almost incessant rains 

 in the valleys and snows on the mountains for four months. Such has been the past winter. 

 Our stock-raisers become so accustomed to neglect to provide feed and shelter, that, when 

 these seasons come, they are entirely unprepared, and stock dies by hundreds. 



To say nothing of losses in products, offspring, flesh, and vigor, and 

 of transmissible weaknesses of constitution, the direct losses by death 

 in this county are placed at 20 per cent, of the cattle and about 30 per 

 cent, of the sheep. The report from Santa Clara states that constantly- 

 inclement weather has " caused stock of all kinds to suffer, unless pro- 

 vided with shelter, and only a small portion have any except what 

 nature provides." 



Among the counties losing most heavily in wintering, the returns from 

 the following are sufficiently specific for a calculation of numbers lost on 

 the basis of the assessor's returns for 1873, which are understood to be 

 very incomplete with reference to all kinds of stock : 



This makes an average loss of twenty-three per cent, in these counties. 

 If the loss throughout the State should prove as much as ten per cent., 

 it would prove a serious injury to the agriculture of the State, and a 

 reproach to the i)rovidence and humanity of her citizens. 



The report from Douglas states that the losses of cattle and sheep 

 are 150 per cent, greater than last year, and that the surviving ewes are 

 generally too poor to raise lambs, and adds : 



Nine out of every ten of the cattle and sheep lost in this county the past winter should be 

 put down to starvation. There is nothing provided for them in the summer. All look for 

 early rains to start the grass and for a mild winter to keep it growing ; and when the reverse 

 of this occurs, as in the past winter, loss by starvation is inevitable. I have wintered quite 

 a large stock without any loss to speak of. One cow, by accident, and one from a swelling 



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