REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 839 
NUMBER AND CONDITION OF FARM STOCK. 
The experience of the winter of 1870-’71 proves that a little foresight, 
directing the way to judicious management, will often remedy the defi- 
ciencies of production. Thus, the comparatively short crop of hay (which 
was seriously light in the East and in portions of the West) led to the 
husbanding of immense quantities of corn-fodder and to the utilizing of 
masses of straw for feeding purposes; to the gathering of larger quanti- 
ties of the wild hay on the borders of the numerous lakelets of the North- 
west, and the cutting of larger areas of prairie grass, so that the ani- 
mals of the farm, consigned by the timid and the croaking to semi-star- 
vation or the knife, went through winter-quarters in higher flesh and 
better health than for several years past. It is true that, in sections in 
which scarcity was most apparent, beeves were sent to the shambles in 
larger numbers and lighter condition than usual; but the relief came 
inainly from care in feeding, avoidance of waste, and the use of coarse 
feed, so abundant at all times, and generally so little utilized. Some 
credit should be given, however, to providential mildness of the weather, 
which reduced the consumption of fodder, and in some northern latitudes 
permitted an unaccustomed bite of grass. The past season has furnished 
new evidences of the capacity of this country as a meat producer, and 
the extent of its feeding resources ordinarily wasted; especially has it 
illustrated the surpassing value of our corn crop. 
The’county returns showing the condition of domestic animals dur- 
ing the year have borne a remarkable uniformity in their exemption 
from croaking and depressing views; and while they exhibit great 
variety in description of the status of domestic animals, nine-tenths of 
them have indicated a state of health and vigor varying from medium 
to highest. 
It has been necessary, on each recurring annual investigation relative 
_to farm stock, to chronicle an amount of anial suffering, disease, and 
death, disagreeable in the recital, burdensome as a tax upon industry, 
and much of it unnecessary as it is expensive. Neglect and exposure, 
habitual and almost universal in the barnless sections of the country, 
and too common in the more recent settlements of the colder Northwest, 
have cost the farmers of the country millionsannually. The past season 
has been favorable, and more humane and economic views are begin- 
ning to obtain; a large preponderance of the returns concur in this 
view, and many of them bring cheering evidence of more rational praec- 
. tices in the treatment of domestic animals. Even where hay was searce, 
as in Grand Isle County, Vermont, ‘extra care and attention more than 
offset the reduced quantity of fodder.” It is gratifying lo notice as one 
of the reasons for less mortality in the Northwest “the more general 
- erection of warm shelters,” as in Fillmore County, Minnesota. While 
cattle ‘do well,” as is trequently reported, without any shelter prepared 
by the hand of man, even in the Rocky Mountain valieys, there is no 
certainty of such exemption from suffering and death either in the Ter- 
ritories, in Texas, or in Louisiana. In the latter, an almost tropical 
region, the return for Washington Parish says: “The severity of the 
Winter caused considerable disease in stock, and the survivors, depend- 
ing on the woods, barely lived, as a general thing.” 
Losses of the year—The actual mortality from exposure and disease 
was probably not half as great in 1870 a3 in 1869. A majority of the 
counties return a very favorable comparison with the report of last 
spring ; some estimate one-half as much loss, others one-fourth, and 
many correspondents assert that they have heard of no losses what- 
