104 



worth of hay, and the grain that was put with it. There 

 were three or four dry cows in the barn at that time, but the 

 cows that were giving milk gave enough to pay for all the 

 hay and grain that was eaten for the week by all the stock, — 

 horses and hens included. 



The merit of meadow hay lies in its bulky character, and 

 in what may be called its stand-by capacity. A daily ration 

 of 20 lbs. of meadow hay, will, I think, make larger paunches 

 and keep fuller stomachs, than 30 lbs. of early cut upland 

 hay ; this is why it is valuable to feed with large quantities of 

 grain, and to animals at rest it does not take as much to keep 

 them full. 



Why is it that dry cows and young stock, classed as ani- 

 mals at rest, are often so poor in the spring, when fed on salt 

 marsh and meadow hay? It is because, though classed with 

 animals at rest, they have no opportunity to rest ; an animal 

 cannot rest unless it is comfortable. On one of the coldest 

 mornings of last winter, I went to a neighboring town for 

 hay. At the barn where I loaded I saw cattle eating the same 

 kind of hay that I was after ; they were very poor, and looked 

 as though they were growing poorer. Why ? The barn was 

 very open and cold — nearl}'^ as cold as out doors, — the hips 

 and sides of the cattle were covered with frozen manure ; 

 they were curled up and shivering with the cold. It made 

 my teeth chatter to look at them ; and when I asked for some 

 water for my horses, they told me that their stock drank out 

 of a hole back of the barn, but horses not used to it would 

 not drink it, they would bring me some from the house. It 

 is not strange the stock was poor, but it is strange that they 

 were alive. Now look at the conditions under which I fed 

 the same kind of hay. The same morning, with the ther- 

 mometer below zero out of doors, the one hanging behind our 

 cows stood at forty degrees above zero ; the cows were clean, 

 and they had clean and dry beds to lie on ; they had an op- 

 portunity three times a day to drink as much good well water 

 as they wanted, — temperature of the water about forty-six 



