330 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



its power, makes it pour forth its song of exult- 

 ation — " the song of steam," in which it boasts 

 of its prowess iu all else but in the business of the 

 husbandman. How it travels over mountains, and 

 distances the winds on the trackless and stormy 

 ocean ! But what boon does it bring, what ser- 

 vice does it render, directly, to the farmer ? It 

 does not for him drain the inexhaustibly rich, 

 but useless marshes of the seaboard ; neither 

 does it furrow the rootless and stoneless prairies 

 of the West. The Government — our people's Re- 

 publican Government — would give a million of 

 doUai-s for a steam power that would kill a thou- 

 sand men at five miles' distancchut not a V for 

 a steam -plow that should add milhons to national 

 wealth and population. That would be against 

 the Constitution ! ! But hear how steam boasts 

 of its contributions toother interests — even the 

 Printer's : 



In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine 

 My tireless arm doth play. 



Where the rocks never saw the sun decline, 

 Or the dawn of the glorious day, 



I bring earth's glittering jewels up 

 From the hidden cave below. 



And I make the fountain's granite cup 

 With a crystal gush overdow. 



I blow the bellows, I forge the steel 



In all the shops of trade ; 

 I hammer the ore and turn the wheel 



Where my arms of strength are made ; 

 I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint, 



I cany, I spin, I weave ; 

 And all my doings I put into print 



On every Saturday eve. 



Returning to the point of economj^ in the ar- 

 rangement of Farm Buildings, it is, as every 

 reader will admit, by no means an uncommon 

 tiling to see the fanner's corn-house at a distance 

 of some hundred yards from places where the 

 corn is to be conveyed every daj', and every 

 grain of it ultimately consumed. Now, were 

 that a part of the machinery of the mauutacturer 

 of Hour, or of cloth, or of iron, you would see it 

 so aiTanged, that between the gathering in the 

 field and the final use of it, one-half of the labor 

 would be saved. Look with what magic-like 

 celerity, quietness, and saving of labor, another 

 grain is managed from the time it leaves the 

 slow and slovenly processes of the farm, and 

 touches the hand of the manufacturer. In the 

 boat, on the wharf, h is machinery takes up the 

 wheat, passes it under the pavement, and with- 

 out noise or confusion, or the touch of a hand, 

 the beautiful flour is placed in the ban-el ! 



Go into any walk of industry except farming 

 and there you find the same economy of aiTange- 

 ment and of labor — the same ingenious contri- 

 vances of mechanical power ; the same com- 

 mand over, and sobscrviency of the elements to 

 give labor a supernatural productiveness. Econ- 

 omy of time and of labor, then, is one of the 

 great objects to be studied in the location and 

 adjustment of farm buildings — and economy 

 furthermore in the use of the crop in its appli- 

 |69I) 



cation to the sustenance and fattening of domes- 

 tic animals. On this point much is to be accom- 

 plished by more or less icarmth which may be 

 secured by the site and arrangement of the 

 farm-yard. In fact, the principal points to be 

 attended to, are ivarmth which supposes good 

 shelter, good dry bedding and pure water and 

 pure air. While the common practice is to let 

 cattle wander over naked fields through the win- 

 ter months, exhausting their substance by ex- 

 posure in gleaning, with great exertion, the 

 merest fraction of nourishment, nothing is better 

 understood by all who have given the least at- 

 tention to the progress of agricultural know- 

 ledge than the well ascertained fact that u<aj~mth 

 and food are in a large degree synonjmous. 



Writers of the highest authority lay down as 

 axioms — that to leave animals to pasture in the 

 cold air is to leave them to struggle with the cli- 

 mate for their existence ; and that, so circum- 

 stanced, they can never improve to anything 

 like the extent to which they would improve if 

 properly protected. 



And furthermore — that to fatten animals on 

 principles of rational economy, they must be 

 placed in situations, in which they may not only 

 have suitable food, but also warmth andres^; 

 and that being fattened they should never be fa- 

 tigued or in any way annoyed, as all fatigue 

 leads to a diminution of fat. On this point of 

 temperature Liebig is clear and explicit : 



" Tlie manifestations of the vital force are de- 

 pendent on a certain temperature. Neither in a 

 plant nor an animal do vital phenomena occur 

 when the temperature is lowered to a ceitain 

 extent. The abstraction of heat must be view- 

 ed as quite equivalent to a diminution of the vi- 

 tal energy. When the temperature sinks, the 

 vital energy diminishes, (unless supplied with a 

 con-espondiug excess of food.) Our clothing 

 [or warmth from any cause] is merely equiva- 

 lent for a. certain amount of food. The more 

 warmly we are clothed, the less urgent becomes 

 the appetite for food ; because the loss of heat 

 by cooling, and con.sequently the amount of heat 

 to be supplied by the food, is diminished. If 

 we were to go naked, like certain savages, or if, 

 in liuntiug or fi.shing, we were exposed to the 

 same degree of cold as the Samoydes, we 

 should be' able with ease to consume 10 lbs. of 

 flesh, and perhaps a dozen tallow candles, as 

 warmly-clad travelers have related with aston- 

 ishment of these people. We should then also 

 be able to take the same quantity of brandy or 

 train oil without bad effects, because the carbon 

 and hydrogen of these sub.stances would only 

 suffice" to keep up the equilibrium between the 

 external temperature and that of oiir bodies. 

 According to the preceding exposition, the 

 quantity of food is regulated by the number of 

 respirations, by the temperature of the air, and 

 by the amount of heat given oft' to the surround- 

 ing medium. 



The reader will perceive that we are not un- 

 dertaking to lay down a;>/a« or to indicate the 

 particular arrangement of Fann Buildings. 

 All we have had in view here, has been to lay 



