STOCK BARNS. 85 



ture, or a rain-storm, will often reduce the yield of milk 

 25 to 40 per cent, in a few days. If we had as complete a 

 test in the case of fattening cattle, we should probably find 

 the difference in gain quite as great. Mr. Charles Eaton, 

 who managed a large number of cattle on the great Alex- 

 ander farm, in Champaign County, 111., one cold winter, 

 found that all the corn which steers could eat (about 40 

 Ibs. per day) in the open air, only sufficed to keep them 

 from losing weight. 



While in some of the feeding districts in the West, land 

 and corn are sometimes so cheap that many good farmers 

 think they can better afford the corn than the shelter ; but 

 this period will soon end. As land becomes more valuable 

 they will find it quite too unremunerative to expend a large 

 amount of corn in keeping cattle, with very little gain in 

 weight, during the winter season. It is not wholly the 

 loss of food that should be considered, but the postpone- 

 ment of ripe market condition, and the fact that when cat- 

 tle are at a stand-still they are taking on an unthrifty 

 habit, which prevents them, for a time, from rapid gain on 

 the best grass in spring. And there can be no doubt that, 

 when the exact saving by warm shelter shall be determined 

 by an accurate comparison between out-door and in-door 

 winter-feeding, it will show a large economy in favor of 

 building the best cattle-barns and feeding in a uniform 

 temperature. 



The few comparative tests that have been made in the 

 West between open air and barn-feeding, which have 

 seemed to show very little gain from the warm temperature 

 of the barn, have ignored the effect of restraint upon wild 

 animals. The animals used for these tests had never been 

 handled or subjected to restraint until placed in stable. 

 This confinement and sudden change of habit produced 

 such nervous irritation as to nearly balance the beneficial 

 effect of a warmer temperature. A convincing test must 



