I.. XXIt.NO. 36. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



283 



THE ECONOMY OF STALL FEEDING. 

 , a lecture on the fattening of cattle, delivered 

 he R('yal Agricultural Society, and reported 

 )C Gardeners' Chronicle, I stated that some ex- 

 nents were then in progress at Whitfield Farm, 

 igh the kindness of Lord Duoie, winch I be- 

 d would confirni some of the theories adduced 

 at lecture. I now beij to redeem my promise 

 inrniinicitin? to the public the results o'' these 

 riLnents. Tliey were carefully superintended 

 Ir John Morion, from whom I have received 

 1 assistance on this and on many other occa- 

 1. 



iebi<», in his work on .\ninial Chemistry, has 

 ■ed more accurately than any precedinq; wri- 

 he source of animal heat, and the constituents 

 le food used in its support. He has shown 

 warmth is an equivalent for food, and that 

 on the other hand, renders nocesr^ary a great- 

 upply of food, by carrying ofl' rapidly the heat 

 h its combustion engenders. He has also 

 ted out that motion is always accompanied 

 waste of matter in the body, and it followed 

 rally from this that an economy of food was 

 ssarilv the result of an economy of motion, 

 e.vperiments of Lord Ducie and Mr. Childcrs, 

 I feeding sheep in sheds, afforded a powerful 

 tical illustration of these theories. The warmth 

 nunicnted by the sheds was equivalent to a 

 lin amount of food, and the deprivation of mo- 

 occaeioned a diminished waste of the tissues 

 le body, and, therefore, a corresponding saving 

 inient. To illustrate these views more fully 

 ollowing experiments were instituted on five 

 of sheep, each lot consisting of five sheep : — 

 lo. 1 lot was fed out of doors, and was there- 

 exposed to all the influence of atmospheric 

 iges. 



Jo. 2 lot was kept under an open shed, and 

 efore was less exposed to the inclemencies of 

 weather. 



fo. 3 lot was placed under an open shed, similar 

 he last lot, but in this case the sheep were kept 

 tary, !. e., each was confined to a space of 3 ft. 

 I ft. 



fo. 4 lot was placed under a close shed in the 

 t. 



Jo. 5 lot was kept under a shed like No. 4, ex- 

 t that each sheep was separated, and confined 

 , space of 3 ft. by 4 feet. 



'hese different lots were allowed 1 pint of Oats 

 each sheep per diem, but were supplied with as 

 ly Swedes as they felt disposed to eat ; the 

 "hts consumed were accurately determined. 

 ! live weights of the sheep were ascertained 

 )re the commencement, and at the conclusion 

 he experiments the results were as follows : — 



n the consideration of these experiments, we 

 / refer to the " roots" alone, as the quantity of 

 •n supplied to the sheep was in all coses the 

 le. It will bi? seen that the first lot, or that 

 ich was exposed to the cold, ate more than dou- 

 the quantity of food consumed by the sheep 

 in a dark warm shed. Exposure to cold winds 



abstracted heat so rapidly from the bodies of the 

 sheep, that a large amount of food was necessary 

 to support their proper temperature. That this 

 excess of food was wholly employed for this pur- 

 pose, and entirely lost as far as the farmer is con- 

 cerned, is obvious, for the absolute increase in 

 weight of the first and last lots is nearly equal, al- 

 though the relative increase for the food consumed 

 is much in favour of the latter. Thus, also, it will 

 be seen, that although the second lot of sheep re- 

 ceived 51S lbs. of food less than the first, yet that 

 lot reached a greater weight both absolutely and 

 relatively. The second lot had the protection of 

 n shed, and, therefore, did not require so much 

 food to keep up the proper temperature of their bo- 

 dies as the exposed sheep. In these two cases, 

 both lots were similarly situated with regard to ex- 

 ercise. In lots .3 and 5, a diminished space was 

 afforded, but without advantage, probably from 

 disturbing the placid temperament of his animals, 

 as they were observed to fret and lose their appe- 

 tites when thus separated. 'I'hc result attending 

 the experiment with the 4th lot is highly interest- 

 ing. The sheep forming this lot were confined in 

 the dark. In this stale there were no inducements 

 for the sheep to move about, or even to remain in 

 a waking state, except when impelled by hunger 

 to eat food. Hence they passed much of their 

 time in sleep. During sleep, the voluntary mo- 

 tions ceased, and there was small waste of the lis- 

 sues of the animal, which now possessed almost 

 entirely a vegetable life, and increased rapidly in 

 size, with small consumption of food. Although 

 eating considerably less than one-half of the food 

 consumed by those sheep which were exposed to 

 the weather and to the causes of waste produced 

 by voluntary motion, this lot increased nearly as 



j much in absolute weight at a relative economy o! 

 food nearly three times as great. 



The results of these experiments are very fa- 



j vorable to the views brought forward in the lee- 

 ture referred to. They will, I trust, confirm, if 



• proof be still requisite, the economy of stall-feed- 

 ing, and the principles on which this practice de- 

 pends. I am quite aware that considerable evils 

 have been found to attend the system in certain 

 cases ; but in every case which I have examined, 

 the evils seem wholly attributable to the manner 

 in which the system was carried into operation, 

 and not to the system itself Cattle are confined 

 in sheds built without any regaid to ventilation or 

 cleanliness : they become diseased ; and stall- 

 feeding is pronounced by the fanner, who thus suf- 

 fers the effects of his own want of care, to bo very 

 injurious, and to be productive of evil consequen- 

 ces to the health of his stock. If cattle are expo- 



! sed continuously to an impure atmosphere, the 



' tone of their system becomes depressed and disease 

 follows, sometimes exhibited in the form of diarr- 

 hoea, frequently of rot, very often of consumption, 

 or of one or other of the many diseases to which 

 cattle are liable. But none of them are the results 

 of the system, nor have they occurred when due 

 regard has been paid to cleanliness and ventila- 

 tion. These are points which retard the progress 

 of fattening much more than farmers are generally 

 aware of. Attention to these circumstances would 

 I feel convinced, render more sure the favorable 

 results which follow from the communication of 

 warmth and the deprivation of excessive motion, 

 and would be further productive of economy in the 

 returns for food supplied. — Dr. Lyon Play/air, be- 

 fore Ike Royal Inatitulion, Manchester. 



HEARING LAMBS FOR THE BUTCHER. 

 The Essex (Mass.) .\gricultural Society's Trans- 

 actions for last year, conlain a valuable slntement 

 from Joseph Marshall, of Ipswich, on the piinage- 

 ment of sheep for the purpose of rearing lambs for 

 the butcher. He keeps them in good plight, as lie 

 finds they will not otherwise be protitablo. In 

 winter they are fed on clover, or second crop hay, 

 bean and pea vines, &c. He is scrupulously at- 

 tentive to the preservation of their lienlih, by keep- 

 ing them in dry places. In winter, they are kept 

 under an open shed nights, and are never allowed 

 to be out in wet storms, day nor night, lie does 

 not even allow their skins to be wet by washing 

 them — preferring to wash the wool after shearing. 

 He has followed this treatu'enl with his sheep tor 

 several years, and has never had an unhualtliy or 

 dirly-nosed one among them — and they have never 

 had a tick or a louse. At the time of lambing, 

 he gives them each a gill of corn every morning, 

 and feeds plentifully with turnips or carrots. They 

 commence lambing in February ; and last season, 

 a part of them being put with the buck in March, 

 again produced lambs in August — and Mr .Mar- 

 shall has no doubt that had they all been with the 

 buck at that time, they would have " produced a 

 second crop of lambs." He intends hereafter to 

 have them produce lambs twice a yea^. He sells 

 his lambs at between three and four months old, at 

 two dollars each, and finds the business profitable. 

 His sheep average four to rive pounds per fleece. 

 Mr M.'s pastures are high ground, not very rich, 

 nor better adapted to .sheep ihan most farms in the 

 country «3/6. Cult. 



Roots of Plants. — In loamy or sandy soils, the 

 roots of trees have been found to penetrate to the 

 depth of 10 or 12 feet ; and the roots of the Canada 

 thistle have been traced 6 or 7 feet below the sur- 

 face. Wheat, if planted in a mellow, rich soil, 

 will strike its roots 3 feet downwards, and elongate 

 much further horizontally. The roots of oats have 

 been discovered at 18 inches from the stem, and 

 the long thread-like roots of grass extend still fur- 

 ther. The roots of an onion are ^o white, that in 

 lilack mould they can be readily traced, and in a 

 trenched or spaded soil, they have been followed 

 to the depth of two feet. The potato throws out 

 roots to the distance of L5 or 20 inches; and the 

 tap-rooted plants, turnips, beets, carrots, &c., inde- 

 pendent of perpendicular roots, spread their fibres 

 to a distance which equals, if it does not exceed 

 the potato. It is perfectly absurd to expect to suc- 

 ceed with roots of this class, unless the ground is 

 so mellow as to allow them to penetrate and grow 

 freely — and to cfiect this mellowing, nothing can 

 be so effectual as the use of the subsoil plow. — 

 Chatham (Eng.j Jour. 



Great Crops. — Gov. Hill states in the Monthly 

 Visitor, that there were raised last year on an is- 

 land in Winnipisseogee lake, 00 1-2 bushels of 

 fine spring wheal to the acre — the same land hav- 

 ing given the year before, 137 busliels of shelled 

 corn. The farmers of that region, we should sup- 

 pose, can have no great desire to emigrate West. 



Black Sea Spring Wheat — Mr G. Farnum, of 

 Shorehani, Vt., says he thrashed about .500 bushels 

 of this wheat, and did not hove a single rusty bun- 

 dle ; whereas three-fourths of the other varieties 

 was badly damaged by rust. 



