86 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



take animals handled from calf hood and used to the re- 

 straint of a stable in winter. Such animals, compared with 

 animals reared and constantly fed in the open air, will show 

 a difference in amount of food and gain that all intelli- 

 gent feeders will be inclined to heed. 



Barns may be built on a large scale, and fully equipped 

 for the best system of feeding, at ten to twenty dollars per 

 head of cattle they will accommodate. Now, let us sup- 

 pose that a steer, weighing 1,000 Ibs. on the first day of 

 November, will gain 150 to 200 Ibs. more, on the same 

 food, in a warm stable, than in the open air, during the 

 five cold months of winter, and this 200 Ibs. gain will ren- 

 der the whole carcass worth from % to 1 cent more per 

 pound, and the whole gain could not be less than $12 to 

 $15 per head, which would, in many cases, pay the whole 

 cost of the barn. A strict comparison between summer 

 and winter feeding, in the open air, will show a greater 

 difference than this, and when we perfect the system of 

 barn feeding, we shall be able to make as great progress in 

 winter as in summer feeding. We know there are other 

 considerations besides the cost of barns to be taken into 

 account, and the chief of these is the labor required to feed 

 animals in barn over those in the field, but we shall con- 

 sider all these and be able to show that there is a large 

 balance in favor of the best system of barn feeding. 



FORM OP BARN. 



Economy and convenience of space that form and ar- 

 rangement requiring the least amount of labor to feed and 

 care for a given number of animals durability as well as 

 economy in the cost of the structure, are the most impor- 

 tant requisites in barn building. The early forms of 

 American barns were devised when everything was done 

 by hand, and they were built low to accommodate hand- 

 pitching ; were filled with interior beams and posts, which 



