94 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



THE WINTERING OF STOCK 



There are three facts connected with the win- 

 tering of stock which should be well considered by 

 every one who keeps a cow, horse, pig, or sheep. 



1. It is a fact that the production of animal 

 heat in the body consumes more than half of the 

 food taken into the stomach. 



2. It is a fact that external warmth serves as 

 an equivalent of food to an extent which is of great 

 importance. 



3. It is a fact that the aliment daily taken into 

 the systems of all animals, should be precisely adapt- 

 ed, by its chemical composition and solubility, to 

 the natural wants of every organ and tissue in the 

 living being. 



To the above, Ave might add other truisms in the 

 keeping of domestic animals, did not long experi 

 ence admonish us that a few facts, clearly, stated, 

 are more useful to a majority of readers than any 

 attempt to express in one article all that ought to 

 be said on any important topic in husbandry. It 

 may be asked how Ave know that more than a moi- 

 ety of food eaten by a horse, or sheep, goes to cre- 

 ate animal heat ? This is our ansAver to that ques 

 tion : By the analysis of hay, oats, corn and corn- 

 stalks, and other food of stock, Ave learn the amount 

 of carbon, (coal,) oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, 

 that 100 lbs. contain. It is known that sensible 

 heat is always generated Avhen carbon, in vegeta- 

 ble substances, (of AAdrich wood and coal are famil- 

 iar examples,) combines chemically Avith oxygen, 

 as in combustion. Noav, nearly two-thirds of the 

 carbon taken into the stomach in forage, roots or 

 grain, passes out of the AA r ind-pipe, in combination 

 Avith oxygen, (vital air,) as carbonic acid. It is 

 just as impossible to burn 20 lbs. of hay in the sys- 

 tem of a horse or coav, and not have it evolve heat, 

 as it would be to burn the same hay in a stove 

 Avithout so much as either warming the fuel or the 

 stove. There is really no more mystery about the 

 production of animal heat through the agency of 

 respiration and digestion than there is about the 

 heat in a steam boiler ; but the needless waste of 

 animal heat, and of the fuel that generates it, in 

 the six coldest months in the year, in this country, 

 amounts to a loss of many millions. To prevent 

 this loss, is the main object of our present writing. 

 It can be done by proA^ding warm and comfortable 

 stables, houses and sheds, for all kinds of stock, 

 including poultry and honey-bees. By ceiling sta- 

 bles in wooden barns inside Avith rough boards, and 

 filling the space betAveen the outside boards and 

 the ceiling Avith dry tanbark or dry horse dung, 

 we haA-e made them sufEciently warm, so that no 

 manure Would freeeze in them except in extremely 

 cold weather. In basement stables, surrounded by 

 thick Avails laid in mortar, and covered by a floor 

 and hay and grain, a word of caution is necessary, 

 not to forget due ventilation. A great many horses, 

 cows and oxen, are injured by being kept in badly 

 ventilated stalls and stables. Let it never be for- 

 gotten by persons sleeping in tight rooms, and by 

 those that rear and keep domestic animals, that 

 the air expelled from the lungs in breathing always 

 contains one hundred times more carbonic acid gas 

 than it did when it entered them. This poisonous 

 gas should have a reasonable outlet from all sta- 

 bles, especially where many animals are kept in 

 one apartment. Nothing but knoAvledge will ena- 

 ble a farmer to combine warmth and ventilation for 

 the health and comfort of all that breathe, wheth- 



er in his own dAvelling, in stables, pig-styes, bee- 

 hives or poultry houses. In this, as in all other 

 matters, extremes are to be avoided. 



In wisely selecting the food Avhich is best adapt- 

 ed to the natural Avants of neat-cattle, milch-kine, 

 Avorking teams, sheep, and poultry, we all have 

 much to learn. 



The value of cutting feed, such as straw, corn- 

 stalks, and hay, is a matter on which we all need 

 more light. It is the general belief that it pays 

 Avell for the labor ; but it Avill pay to cut good hay, 

 eA r en for working cattle 1 If one has hired help, and 

 nothing else for them to do Avhile cutting hay, doubt- 

 less it will aid digestion to cut up the stems and 

 leaA'es of forage plants. IIoav to make flesh and 

 fat to the best ad\-antage, are points of some inter- 

 est to those who keep animals and prepare them 

 for the butcher. Our OAvn observation leads to the 

 conclusion that it is better economy to boil corn, 

 peas, and barley, fatting hogs and cattle, Avithout 

 grinding, if one has to pay from 8 to 16 per cent, 

 of the grain to the miller. Cooking food , like ' ' hom- 

 ony," renders all its nutriment available, and grind- 

 ing can do no more, and one loses the toll, Avhat- 

 eA r er that may be. Nature maintains animal heat 

 for chemical purposes, or to aid in transforming 

 vegetable into animal tissues. Cooking food is a 

 step in the same direction, for it effects important 

 chemical changes in the substances cooked. Hoav 

 far hot water may be economically used in prepar- 

 ing forage, seeds, roots, tubers, apples and pump- 

 kins, for the consumption of fatting cattle, must be 

 decided by future experiments. Whatever feed 

 domestic animals receive, it should always be given 

 them at stated periods of the day — and all that is 

 left should be promply removed, that the animal 

 be not alloAved to breathe upon it and taint it with 

 the foul exhalations from the body. One of the 

 most common errors in wintering stock, is the no- 

 tion that they should not gain as much in weight 

 when kept up, or fed in a yard, as when running 

 in a good pasture in summer and autumn. Every 

 day that a pig, heifer, steer, lamb or colt, lives 

 without growing, involves the OAvner in expense, 

 and probable loss. The art of stunting young an- 

 imals is more practised than studied ; and the prin- 

 ciples of making Shetland ponies, and such wee-bits 

 oxen, cows and hogs, as one meets AA'ith in some 

 States, ought to be known to all. Nature kindly 

 contracts the body to meet the "limited supply of 

 food, by bringing the system prematurely to ripe- 

 ness, till some of the adult horses AA r eigh consider- 

 ably less than the largest sheep. To add Aveight 

 in muscle and fat, over and above the daily loss by 

 necessary absorption, the keeper of young animals 

 must give them more than barely enough to main- 

 tain lite ; and yet this is the rule of many a farm- 

 er in wintering his stock — hogs, cattle and sheep. 

 What an animal requires according to the weight 

 of its body, to make good the Avear and tear of ev- 

 er-consuming life, in the hourly removal of the el- 

 ements of bone, tendon, nerve, cellular and vascu- 

 lar tissue, fat, &c. , arc not knoAvn. When an adult 

 animal neither gains nor loses AA r eight, if wc sub- 

 tract from its food all that is voided by the bowels 

 and kidneys, and in respiration, the excess is most- 

 ly appropriated to repair the waste in solids, Avhich 

 is constantly in progress. But the effete matter 

 pass out of the system mingled with the residuum 

 of food daily eaten, and we have no means of sep- 

 arating the carbon from the bsjiin or muscles, in 



