142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



with what they gave when they were eating dry food and 

 drinking a large amount of water. I want to know whether 

 the moist food does them as much good as dry food, and 

 drinking a large amount of water. 



Professor Roberts. Certainly, when the food is moist 

 they will not drink so much water. If you give them cold 

 water, you have got to burn hay and corn to warm it. 



Mr. Stone. It does not take much corn or cotton-seed 

 meal, if you make your food moist, to warm it. 



Mr. Newiiall. I have had some experience in this matter. 

 I have had a heater made by the Ericsson Company of 

 Brattleboro, Vt., that I like as well as anything I have 

 seen. I believe it pays me. I think it saves me at least ten 

 dollars a year in the time that I would otherwise have to 

 spend in watering my cattle. We all know that cows are 

 very sensitive to cold water. If you take out a lot of young 

 cows, they will dip their noses into the water, throw their 

 heads up, and very often it is ten or fifteen minutes before 

 they can make up their minds to drink that cold water. This 

 heater only takes a handful of waste wood to heat the water. 

 It is seven feet long. If the water is frozen over in the 

 morning an inch thick, I build a little fire under it, and 'when 

 I come out from feeding, the ice is all gone and the cattle 

 will drink that water just as quickly as they would on a 

 warm morning in July. I have never tested it to find out 

 exactly how much difference it made, but I think it would 

 pay me to buy one every year. I water my young cattle 

 only once a day. They will go out and drink the cold 

 water, and you will hear the barn shake, they are so full of 

 ice water when they go back. It is just so with the cows. 

 If they go out and drink all the cold water they want, they 

 will tremble as if they had the palsy. I have made up my 

 mind that it does not take nearly as much food for my cows 

 when I warm their water, as when they have it cold. I do 

 not warm it up, probably, as hot as the professor suggests, 

 but pretty near, — what I should call milk- warm. 



Mr. Everett. I think not one in ten of the farmers of 

 Massachusetts have ever heard of heatino; water so hot as the 

 professor has suggested. At any rate, I never have. But 

 taking the chill from the water has been practiced by a good 



