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Owing to tlie prolouged drought of last summer, aud to the very early 

 frosts which damaged almost all our corn, farmers generally have been 

 very short of feed; and where feed is scarce cattle and sheep are usually 

 put upon short rations ; very few" deaths have occurred, and as spring is at 

 hand, and cattle will live on the range in two or three weeks, we are ex- 

 pecting to have a surplus during the summer and fall. Cattle are quite 

 numerous in this county, and rapidly on the increase." 



Michigan has wintered her stock well. Condition, as elsewhere, ap- 

 pears to be measured by quantity and quality of feed, as in Montcalm, 

 " cattle were never in better order — there has been plenty of clover and 

 hay;" and in Leelenaw, "poor — early winter prevented the gathering of 

 turnips." 



Returns from Wisconsin^ Minnesota^ and Iowa are extremely favorable, 

 almost without exception. The Humboldt (Iowa) correspondent says: 

 "Feed being plenty and cheap, they have been well cared for, which 

 seems to be all that is required to make the business a success." 



Missouri. — The temperature of winter was very equable, with little 

 snow or rain, and farm stock are generally looking extremely well. In 

 Cooper County it is said that '' cattle are thin, caused by excessive wheat- 

 raising, and the neglect of corn, hay, and oats." 



Kansas. — Cattle are in fine condition in this State. It has been dis- 

 covered tliat "good keeping is a cure for almost any ill that cattle flesh 

 is heir to." " Farmers are beginning to see," says one of our corre- 

 spondents, " that it does not pay to allow^ a steer to lose two hundred 

 pounds in ^\dnter by want of food and shelter." The following exception 

 is noted in Butler : "Almost all the cattle in the county are quite thin. 

 In this, more than in any other county in the State, we depend upon our 

 stock wintering ' on the range.' Last summer we had so much rain that 

 the grass grew very large and coarse, and has not been worth much for 

 winter pasture, and in consequence of the long drought we have no grass 

 yet, which keeps our cattle in winter quarters at least one month longer 

 than usual. This applies to stock in the northern portion of our county. 



In NehrasJca, farm animals have generally wintered well. In Douglas 

 County an exception is mentioned : " In regard to the condition of cat- 

 tle, I must say that the two great snow-storms of the past season have 

 done much injury. One man in this county tried safely to winter two 

 hundred head of cattle brought from Texas last fall. He lost one-fourth 

 of the entire number, and fears that others may die before grass comes. 

 It appears Texas cattle cannot be introduced here in safety. Nearly all 

 poorly-fed and weak cattle have either perished in the two great storms, 

 or are in a fair way to die soon." 



California. — In the southern part of the State a severe drought parched 

 the pasturage, and starved the cattle, causing the death of multitudes. 

 One man in San Luis Obispo sent off nine thousand to the foot-hills of 

 the Sierra Nevadas to preserve them from starvation. No rain fell in 

 San Joaquin until the last of February. The northern part of the State 

 had a sufficiency of rain to make the pasturage good, and the stock of 

 the northern counties is therefore in good condition. 



The correspondent for Stanislaus County says : " Neither cattle nor 

 sheep require any extra care during the winter months. Part of the dry 

 season, from August to the middle of November, is the most trying on 

 stock, horses, cattle and sheep. After rain has fallen and destroyed the 

 nutritiveness of the dry grass, is the worst time ; then stock sometimes 

 suffer ; or when rain holds off' till very late, as was the case during the 

 latter part of last year and the early part of this. No loss was suffered 

 in this county, but in the counties from one hundred to two hundred 



