NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



311 



1 man at §3 per month 



Board of man at $1,50 per we 



S7,3tf per day. 

 Balance in favor of Straw Cutter, $2,66 per day. 



In addition to the above balance may lie added 

 an increase of six gallons of milk from 25 cows then 

 in milk, and likewise something for the improve- 

 ment of the condition of my whole stock. 



Yours respectfully, Amos Sheldon." 

 In a communication of FinlayDun, Jr., of Scot- 

 land, to the Highland Society of Scotland, for which 

 he received a Gold Medal, he says in relation to 

 the quantity of food to be given to cattle. "It i;- 

 foond from experience that a healthy ox consume* 

 nearly one-fifth its own weight of hay, straw, and 

 such other dried food. Cattle 50 stone imperial 

 weight allowed straw ad libitum will consume from 

 150 to 181) lbs. of turnips daily." Boussingault 

 considers as a sufficient allowance 6 lbs. of mixed 

 food or 4 lbs. of hay, for every 100 lbs. of living 

 weight ; or otherwise, about 30 lbs. per day of a 

 mixture of equal parts of grass and hay for cattle 

 of 30 stone imperial weight. The food of cattle 

 requires to be of a certain hulk. Without this, 

 digestion and assimilation are not properly per- 

 formed, even although the food be sufficiently nu- 

 tritive. In order that digestion be effectually per- 

 formed, the stomach must have certain mechani- 

 cal stimulus, which the bulk of the food naturally 

 imparts to it. But the quantity of food necessary 

 to an ox must of course be greatly modified by va- 

 rious circumstances. It is evident for instance 

 that young animals, in proportion to their size, re- 

 quire a larger quantity and a better sort of nutri- 

 ment than adults. This depends upon their hav- 

 ing to increase the size of all the parts of their 

 frame, as well as to repair the continual waste, 

 which is also greater in them than in older ani- 

 mals, on account of their taking a greater amount 

 of exercise. 



'• At all ages, exercise greatly increases the de- 

 mand for food, and prevents the accumulation of 

 fat. A man, when employed in active outdoor 

 labor, requires a much more nutritive diet, than 

 when pursuing a sedentary occupation within 

 doors. Working cattle also require a larger quan- 

 tity and a more nutritive quality of food, than 

 similar animals confined to courts or tied in the 

 stall. Wild animals, and those allowed to roam 

 about, rarely become fat. It has been remarked 

 by Liebeg, that cows driven long distances to pas- 

 ture, unless they get an extra supply of food, yield 

 milk poor in casein — the materials which would 

 otherwise have formed that constituent of the milk 

 being used in repairing the waste of the muscles 

 and other parts employed in locomotion." 



Professor Playfair, in a lecture delivered before 

 the Royal Agricultm-al Society on the application 

 of Physiology to the rearing and feeding of cattle, 

 says, — "It is known that the vital forces decrease 

 when the body is exposed to a certain degree of 

 cold ; and when this is sufficiently intense, that 

 they are either suspended or are altogether anni- 

 hilated. But the chemical force, oxygen, is con- 

 densed or increased in its power b\ r such agencies, 

 and it therefore now reigns triumphant. Vitality, 

 (the cause of increase and of sustenance) being 

 removed, chemical affinity, (the cause of waste) 

 acts upon those tissues which have been freed from 

 the dominion of vitality, and effects their destruc- 

 tion. Hence it is, that cattle do not fatten so well 



in cold weather as in hot. The chemical powers 

 being now in the ascendant, prevent the increase 

 of mass. We know, also, that the intervention of 

 cold weather in summer either wholly arrests, or 

 greatly retards, the fattening of our cattle. But 

 as the decrease of vitality has been occasioned by 

 a diminution of the temperature of the body, it is 

 obvious that by an elevation of the temperature, 

 vitality would be enabled to resume its proper 

 functions. It has been shown that the food of 

 various countries is more or less combustible, ac- 

 cording to the temperature of the climate ; and 

 proof was adduced that the amount of the food 

 consumed varied also according to the temperature. 

 The animal body is a furnace, which must be kept 

 up to a certain heat in till climates. This furnace 

 must, therefore, be supplied with more or less 

 fuel, according to the temperature of the external 

 air. If, then, in winter we wish to retain the vital 

 functions of our cattle in a proper degree of ac- 

 tivity, we must keep up the heat of their bodies 

 This we may do in two ways. We may either add 

 more fuel (food) to the furnace, or we may pro- 

 tect their bodies from the cold. Warmth is an 

 equivalent for food, which may thus be economised. 

 Out I wish to give you facts, and not assertions ; 

 and as a proof of the view I have now given you, 

 I will cite the following experiment which was 

 made by the Earl of Ducie, at Whitfield farm. 



"One hundred sheep were f IJed by tens in pens, 

 each of which was 22 feet in length by 10 feet in 

 breadth, and possessed a covered shed attached to 

 it of 12 feet in length by 10 in breadth. They 

 were kept in therefrom the 10th of October to the 

 10th of March. Each sheep consumed on an aver- 

 age 20 lbs. of swedes daily. Another hundred 

 were folded in pens of a similar size, but with- 

 out sheds attached. They were kept during the 

 same time, and their daily consumption of swedes 

 amounted to 25 lbs. each. Here the circum- 

 stances were precisely similar with respect to exer- 

 cise, the only difference being that the first hun- 

 dred sheep had sheds into which they might retire, 

 and thus be partially protected from the cold. 



"This partial protection was equivalent to a cer- 

 tain amount of food, and consequently we find 

 that the sheep enjoying this protection consumed 

 one-fifth less food than those sheep which were 

 left entirely exposed to the cold. In the last case 

 the consumption of the additional food arose wholly 

 from the necessity of adding more fuel (food) to 

 the furnace of the body, in order to keep up its 

 normal temperature. This was proved from the 

 circumstance, that those sheep which enjoyed the 

 protection had increased 3 lbs. each, more than 

 those left unprotected, although the latter had 

 consumed one-fifth more food. 



"I wish particularly to impress upon you that 

 warmth is an equivalent for food, and that there- 

 fore food may be economized by protecting cat- 

 tle from the cold. The honey stored up by bees 

 is for the purpose of serving as fuel to keep up 

 the heat of their bodies during the winter. Now 

 it has been found that when two hives of bees are- 

 placed in one hive during winter, that they actual- 

 ly consume less honey than each hive would have 

 done separately. You will easily perceive the ex- 

 planation of this circumstance from the facts which 

 I have already stated. Their close contiguity pre- 

 vents a rapid escape of the heat of their bodies 

 and consequently less fuel (honey) is required to 



