94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



day curled up, shivering and wasting their food, by the impos- 

 sibility of keeping warm. 



It has been demonstrated that cattle laid on a much larger 

 amount of fat in proportion to their consumption of food, during 

 April, May and June, than in the colder months. This is 

 consistent with the well-known fact, that the rapid absorption 

 of caloric by a cold and moist atmosphere, renders necessary a 

 larger quantity of food, to keep up the supply of carbon ; the 

 food is therefore wasted, which, if tlie animal were warmer, 

 would be producing fat. We find the fact so in ourselves ; 

 exposed to cold, in open, unsheltered situations during winter, 

 our appetite increases strangely, while our weight remains 

 unaltered. Mr. Horsefall, wliose admirable essay on dairy 

 stock was published by the Massachusetts Society, and whose 

 dairy is one of the most admirably managed in the kingdom, 

 keeps his stables at about sixty degrees, and neither he nor 

 other good dairymen allow their cows to go out in the cold to 

 drink, as it invariably causes the milk to shrink. It is the 

 opinion of an intelligent dairyman that there is a difference of 

 two quarts of milk a day between a cow comfortably housed, 

 and the same one exposed to the cold for half the day, as we 

 see them. 



The young stock, too — calves and colts — when allowed good 

 food and sheltered, will be one-third larger in the spring than 

 if turned out to all weathers, with the coarsest and most 

 innutritions food. 



The experiment of Lord Ducie and Mr. Childers in England 

 a few years since, shows that sheep sheltered in a warm slied 

 ate one-fifth less food, and increased in weight one-third more 

 than another lot of equal number and weight, with precisely 

 the same food, fed in the open air. A pen of sheep on Lord 

 Ebrington's farm was sheared early as an experiment ; they 

 immediately ate from two to three pounds of turnips each per 

 ' day more than before, showing their want of a warmer tempera- 

 ture. These facts ought to make such an impression on our 

 farmers as to lead them to keep all their stock warm through 

 the winter, not turning them out except to water, and then but 

 for a short time. 



In supplying our animals with suitable food, and in the 

 preparation of it, there is undoubtedly a great waste, though 

 t 



