112 



Keeping Cattle Warm. 



Vol. IX. 



quantity of food which the animal requires 

 to eat. The heat of the animal is insepa-| 

 rably connected with its respiration. The 

 more frequently it breathes, the warmer it 

 becomes, and the more carbon it throws oft' 

 from its lungs. It is believed, indeed, by 

 many, that the main purpose of respiration 

 is to keep up the heat of the body, and that 

 this heat is produced very much in the same 

 way as in a common fire, by a slow combus-' 

 tion of that carbon which escapes in the 

 form of carbonic acid from the lungs. Place 

 a man in a cold situation, and he will either 

 starve or he will adopt some means of warm-l 

 \x\g himself. He will probably take exer-^ 

 cise, and by this means cause himself to 

 breathe quicker. But to do this for a length| 

 of time, he must be supplied with more food.l 

 For not only does he give ofl' more carbon 

 from his lungs, but the exercise he takesj 

 causes a greater natural waste also of the 

 substance of his body. j 



«' So it is with all animals. The greater' 

 the difterence between the temperature of 

 the body and that of the atmosphere in whichj 

 they live, the more food they require to| 

 "feed the lamp of life," — to keep them 

 warm, that is, and to supply the natural 

 waste. Hence the importance of planta- 

 tions as a shelter from cold winds, to graz' 

 ing stock-*-of open sheds, to protect fatten' 

 ing stock from the nightly dews and colds — 

 and even of closer covering to quiet and 

 gentle breeds of cattle or sheep, which feed 

 without restlessness, and quickly fatten. 



"A proper attention to the warmth of his 

 cattle or sheep, therefore, is of great practi- 

 cal consequence to the feeder of stock. By 

 keeping them warm, he diminishes the 

 quantity of food which is necessary to sus- 

 tain them, and leives a larger proportion 

 for the production of beef or mutton. 



" Various experiments have been lately 

 published, which confirm the opinions above 

 deduced from theoretical considerations. Of 

 these I shall only mention one by Mr. Chil- 

 ders, in which twenty sheep were folded in 

 the open field, and twenty of nearly equal 

 weight, were placed under a shed in a yard. 

 Both lots were fed for three months — Janu- 

 ary, February, and March — upon turnips, as 

 many as they chose to eat, half a pound of 

 linseed cake, and halt a pint of barley each 

 sheep, per day, with a little hay and i&'i. 



The sheep in the field consumed the same 

 quantity of food, all the barley and oil-cake, 

 and about 19 lbs. of turnips per day, from 

 the first to last, and increased on the whole 

 ;^6 stone 8 lbs. Those under the shed con- 

 sumed at first as much food as the others, 

 but after the third week they eat 2 lbs. of 

 turnips each less in the day, and in the 

 ninth week, again 2 lbs. less, or only 15 lbs. 

 a day. Of the linseed-cake, they also eat 

 about one-third less than the other lot, and 

 yet they increased in weight 56 stone 6 lbs., 

 or 20 stone, more than the others. 



"Thus the cold and exercise in the field 

 caused the one lot to convert more of their 

 food into dung, the other, more of it into 

 mutton. 



"The absence of light has also a material 

 influence upon the effects of food in increas- 

 ing the size of animals. Whatever excites 

 attention in an animal, awakens, disturbs, 

 or makes it restless, appears to increase the 

 natural waste, and to diminish the efi^ect of 

 food in rapidly enlarging the body. The 

 rapidity with which fowls are fattened in 

 the dark, is well known to rearers of poul- 

 try. In India, the habit prevails of sewing 

 up the eyelids of the wild hog-deer, the 

 spotted deer, and other wild animals, when 

 netted in the jungles, with the view of 

 taming and speedily fattening them. The 

 absence of light indeed, however produced, 

 seems to soothe and quiet all animals, to 

 dispose them to rest, to make less food ne- 

 cessary, and to induce them to store up 

 more of what they eat, in the form of fat 

 and muscle. 



" An experiment made by Mr. Morton, on 

 the feeding of sheep, shows the effect at 

 once of shelter, of quiet, and of the absence 

 of light upon the quantity of food eaten, and 

 of mutton produced from it. 



"Five sheep of nearly equal weights, 

 were fed each with a pound of oats a day, 

 and as much turnips as they chose to eat. 

 One was fed in the open air, two in an open 

 shed — one of them being confined in a crib 

 — two more were fed in a close shed in the 

 dark, and one of these also was confined in 

 a crib, so as to lessen as much us possible 

 the quantity of exercise it should take. The 

 increase of live weight in each of the five, 

 and the quantity of turnips they respectively 

 consumed, appear in the following table: 



