372 
WINTER MANAGEMENT OF STOCK. 
Sheep are more so than any other domestic an¬ 
imal. Animals of all kinds thrive better, and 
fatten faster, when they have access to several 
kinds of food than when they are confined to 
only one sort. 
Of this fact, we should take the advantage in 
foddering; and by a judicious admixture of 
different kinds, induce stock to eat much of a 
given kind of fodder, which, if fed alone, would 
be entirely refused. Sheep and cattle would 
doubtless thrive well on good hay; but they 
do much better if a portion of straw is allowed 
them, in connection with the hay. 
I never confine my stock for more than one 
day, to one kind of food, after the foddering sea¬ 
son has fairly commenced. When my cattle 
are brought into winter quarters, I commence 
threshing my grain, and thresh but .a few hun¬ 
dred bundles at a time. A part of the straw is 
passed through a straw cutter, and mixed with 
cut hay, chaff, cut corn stalks, and moistened 
with water. This precipitates any disagreeable 
dust which may exist among it, and prepares 
it for the reception of meal, or shorts, which 
will adhere more evenly to the mass by being 
wet, as it is incorporated with a fork. A heap¬ 
ing bushel of this preparation constitutes a 
breakfast for an ox or cow. When they are 
turned from their stalls into the yard, they have 
access to good fresh straw during the day, of 
which they will eat a great amount. When I 
feed whole hay, straw is mixed with it in the 
proportion of one pound of straw to two or three 
of hay. This is a more expeditious mode of 
feeding, but not so economical. I feed but little 
whole hay; because, I consider that it requires 
enough less of cut fodder, for the maintenance 
of an animal, to remunerate one for the expense 
of keeping a machine in order, and time occu¬ 
pied in cutting. But, cutting damaged fodder 
will by no means make it good; although a vast 
amount of hay that is coarse and unpalatable 
while whole, by a little preparation, may be 
rendered eatable. As cold produces a voracious 
appetite, the poorest part of fodder should be 
reserved for the coldest weather; and care 
should be taken to increase the quantity of food 
as the quality deteriorates. It is bad policy to 
confine young cattle or sheep, during the se¬ 
verest weather, as is the practice of some farm¬ 
ers, to straw alone, and then feed them some¬ 
thing else when the weather moderates; be¬ 
cause, the substances found in straw are not 
sufficient to supply the waste of the bodily parts 
of the animal; and it is impossible for them to ; 
derive what is absolutely necessary for their j 
subsistence from the atmosphere which sur¬ 
rounds them. They cannot live on air any more 
than they can survive long without it. 
2. In connection with an abundance of food, 
comfortable protection from the pelting storms 
of winter should not be overlooked. Some 
farmers are inclined to think that cattle and 
sheep have thick coats of hair and wool, and 
a tough skin for a protection; but they hate 
cold and wet storms as much as a cat dislikes a 
wet floor. Perhaps stock experience as much 
injury in consequence of the cold and stormy 
nights in the fall, as during the winter; for then, 
their systems are not so thoroughly prepared 
to resist the cold as they are after the cold 
weather has really commenced. It cannot be 
denied but that stock would keep in good con¬ 
dition without any protection during the winter; 
but comfortably protected from the cold storms, 
they will subsist on a much smaller allowance 
of food. Warmth is indispensably requisite to 
the thrift and comfort of any animal. The heat 
of the body must be kept up, or incalculable 
injury follows. All animals depend on the food 
taken into the stomach, to supply them with 
heat; and if comfortably protected, much of the 
food which is appropriated for this purpose 
would go to form flesh, bone, and muscle. Ani¬ 
mal heat is sustained in the same manner that 
the flame of a fire is supported ; that is, by the 
union of two elementary substances, oxygen 
and carbon, which are the principal support¬ 
ers of combustion. The source from whence 
horses, cattle, &c. derive carbon, is the fodder 
which they consume; which, after undergoing 
mastication and digestion, is carried by the 
blood to the lungs, where, by the act of respira¬ 
tion, it is united with a portion of the oxygen of 
the atmosphere, and by this union, heat is gen¬ 
erated. Now it is evident from this fact, that 
the blood of an animal must be furnished with 
a new supply of carbon from time to time, either 
from the fat and muscle secreted in the system, 
or from the food consumed. Should there be 
a deficiency of carbon in the daily allowance 
of an animal’s food, such deficiency must be 
made up from a waste of the organised parts of 
the body. Exposing animals to a low tempera¬ 
ture dissipates this heat; and if the situation is 
a bleak one, heat is dissipated with increased 
rapidity. When the bodies of animals are wet 
with rain and snow, evaporation is constantly 
going on, by which process, much more of the 
heat of the body is evolved than when the body 
is dry; and if the wind blows upon them, evap¬ 
oration is more rapid; and consequently, a 
