AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



PUliLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOb. XIX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 13, 1841. 



INO. 28. 



N . E . FARMER. 



The foIlowiiTT from the Albany Cultivator, con- 

 tains ^iiod instruction and advice, which arc not 

 less timely in January than in December, the month 

 for wliich the article was written. 



WORK FOR THE MONTH. 



Cari: of Stock in Winter From December until 



April, in our northern climate, and in a greater or 

 less dejree in more southern ones, the great busi- 

 ness of the farmer consists in the care of his domes- 

 tic animals. One of the great sources of loss to 

 the fanner is the wretched condition in which his 

 animals are frequently kept: their wool, their milk, 

 and their ability to hibor being in a great measure 

 determined by their mode of keeping during the 

 winter. VVithuut shelter, without water, without 

 food, or at best an irregular and partial supply, it 

 must be e.vpectfd that disease will invade his 

 flocks and herds, and occasion losses that months 

 of hard labor will be required to counterbalance. 



At the commencement of winter, the farmer 

 should carefully examine the condition of all his 

 animaU; ascertain whether any are unwell, weak, 

 low in rtesii, and the cause. Such animals require 

 particular attention. One diseased animal may in- 

 fect a hundred if brought into close contact with 

 them ; a weak, poor animal will fare worse with a 

 number than ainne, and the chances of getting 

 through the vvinter are proportionably abridged ; 

 and all such must have good care and attention, or 

 there will be a total loss. If there is one truth re- 

 specting animals more deserving of remembrance 

 than another, it is that the animal entering the win- 

 ter months in high condition, is already half win- 

 tered ; that is, the care and food required to bring 

 him out well and hearty in the spring, will not be 

 one half as much as will be required by the one 

 that commences winter, spring poor. A fat, strong 

 animal, will be warm and comfortable, where a 

 poor, weak one can hardly live, and the hearty vig- 

 orous one will digest and assimilate food which 

 the weak one wciuld scarcely taste. All weak and 

 sickly animals at any season of the year, and par- 

 ticularly in the winter, should be kept by them- 

 selves, and receive the best care, and the best 

 keeping possible. 



Shelter for animals is a point too often neglect- 

 ed by farmers. Their sheep or cattle are left to 

 find the warm side of a stack or fence, during our 

 winter storms of snow or rain as they best can ; 

 and when the former dieotfby the dozen in March, 

 or hi.s cows are " on the lift" for a month or two in 

 the spring, the owner affects to wonder at the cause, 

 or why his neigiibor who has good sheds is not as 

 unlucky a? himself. Domestic animals must have 

 a shelter ; it is as necessary for them as it is for 

 man, and one miiy as well talk of comfort without 

 it as the other. Few things are more trying to 

 the men who has a smil, than to see a Hock of 

 sheep crouching in ;'. corner of the fence half buried 

 in sno'v ; a lew lean cow-!, their feet so drawn to- 

 gether by cold and hunger that all might stand in 



ahalfbushel; half a dozen swine of the alligator 

 breed, squealing, and their noses imploringly turn- 

 ed to the place where the trough should be; and 

 the satne air of discomfort and misery pervading 

 every thing on the premises. Where animals are 

 kept in this way we instinctively expect to hnd the 

 windows of the house stutled with cloaks and old 

 hats, and the owner at the tire-side of the nearest 

 tavern or grogshop, and rarely will such expecta- 

 tion be disappointed. It is very true much less at- 

 tention wa.s paid to the shelter of animals than 

 now, and it is equally true that the dilVerence in 

 the mode of keeping was not greater than that ex- 

 isting in the wool, size, maturity and value of the 

 respective animals. 



Water is another essential thing in the winter 

 management of animahs, but it is a thing more fre- 

 quently neglected than almost any other matter 

 connected with their comfort. Cattle are often al- 

 lowed during the severest storms, to go half a mile 

 to drink, and require a good feed and an hour in a 

 warm stable to counteract the effects of the labor 

 of wallowing through the snow. In addition to 

 this, their drink is frequently found in a slough, 

 and the animal is covered to the knees in mud, 

 which is h'ft to freeze, stiffen the legs, and by re- 

 tarding the circulation cause their freezing. It is 

 no disadvantage to cattle to go a suitable distance 

 to water, but rather a benefit, as proinoling circu- 

 lation in the feet, and thus preventing diseases of 

 the extremities; but the place of resort should be 

 free from mud, and room for the animals to ap- 

 proach without crowding or fighting. Sheep are 

 almost universally the victims of neglect in respect 

 to water; while, although they can live without 

 it, water is as essential to their cointbrt, and used 

 by them as constantly as it is by cattle. There 

 are few farms on which, with a very little expense, 

 plenty of water may not be had sufficiently near 

 the barn for all the purposes of stock; and where 

 buildings are to be erected, particular reference 

 should be had to this point. 



Animals should be salted in the winter with the 

 greatest attention and regularity. Farmers are 

 too careless about this in summer, and are apt to 

 neglect it altogether in winter — a course which 

 requires reformation at once. It is necessary for 

 their health, gives an appetite, and summer or win- 

 ter they should always have access to salt. \\ here 

 a farmer has no sheds or troughs for salting, the 

 best way is to make a strong brine and sprinkle it 

 over the hay, straw or other fodder they are to re- 

 ceive. Such food will be eaten more cleanly, and 

 there will be no waste of the salt. 



Regularity in foddering nr feeding all animals, 

 is very necessary. Experience has shown that a 

 given quantity of t'ood will keep an animal in much 

 better condition when fed to them at regular hours, 

 than when given to them without order and at hap- 

 hazard. In the former case the animal in the in- 

 tervals of feeding is quiet; he has taken his meals 

 and is expecting nothing more until the staled hour 

 arrives, for all animals soon acquire the habit of 

 computing time quite accurately ; in the latter case 

 he is continually restless and uneasy — bleating. 



bellowing, or squealing, and wasting what nourish- 

 ment he receives, in expectations and efforts to ob- 

 tain more. Feed your cattle regularly tiien, what- 

 ever may be the kind of fiod. This half starving 

 animals, feeding them as it suits yourconvenience, 

 keeping them without salt or water, and thinking 

 they can get along witlmut shelter, is bad policy, 

 and should be repudiated at once by every man 

 who would be merciful to his beast, or find in his 

 pocket satisfactory evidence that keeping stock is 

 not a losing business. 



Preparation oj Fire Wood. — Another thing to be 

 attended to in the winter is the getting of wood 

 for the year. This work must not be put off till 

 the last of the season, since if this is the case, the 

 farmer has too often the pleasure of drawing his 

 wood a jag at a time, and finding when he comes 

 to cut it, (perhaps when he should be haying or 

 reaping,) lliat it is so filled with gravel, that his 

 axe will require grinding after each operation. The 

 wood-house must be filled in the winter for the 

 next season's use, that green wood and smoke, and 

 the sour looks of the good woman, and the delay 

 incident to bad wood and worse fires may be avoid- 

 ed. Where a saving of fuel is desirable, and this 

 is decidedly the case with most farmers in this 

 country, it is better to use the saw in preference to 

 the axe as far as is practicable. But where the 

 axe is used, care should be taken to gather up the 

 chips if the wood is cut in the wood lot instead of 

 the yard, as we have found by experience that a 

 chopper in cutting up three cords of four feet wood, 

 will make a full wagon load of chips, which for 

 many purposes are the most valuable part of the 

 wood, and too frequently now wholly lost for the 

 use of fuel. 



Where there is no' frOod-house the fuel should 

 he drawn, split, and closely piled in such a way 

 that a roof of boards may be placed over it to pro- 

 tect the wood from the weather while seasoning, 

 and after it is dried. The difference between pro- 

 tected wood and that exposed, is nearly as great 

 as that between wood made from green trees and 

 from dead ones. The more hard, heavy and sound 

 fire wood is, the better it will be when dried, and 

 the least decay or exposure to the elements after 

 cutting, is prejudicial. Some have contended that 

 part of green wood is preferable to having it whol- 

 ly dry. This is a decided mistake; as the experi- 

 ments (if Count Rumford proved that the difference 

 in the heat given out, was precisely equal to that 

 required to evaporate the same quantity of water as 

 was contained in the green wood. 



Improvement of the Mind. — And now, when your 

 animals and every thing within doors is well and 

 snugly cared for, is the time during the winter 

 evenings, and days when the storm confines you to 

 vour homes, to store the mind with useful knowl- 

 edge, and avail yourself of the means of educating 

 and schooling the man as well as the child, which 

 happily are within the reach of every American 

 citizen. Books, magazines, papers on all subjects 

 and in profusion exist; New York and Massachu- 

 setts have placed excellent collections within the 



