THE CULTIVATOR. 
59 
keeping cattle in winter. 
Messrs. Editors— Will you permit an old subscriber 
to give you some of his opinions on the subject' of win¬ 
tering stock. Here, where our winter is some five months 
long, economy or prudence would dictate that the meth¬ 
ods the best for the animals, and the most conducive to 
profit, should be adopted; but it seems certain that the 
means best adapted to produce these results, are sadly 
neglected by my brother farmers generally. 
It is frequently the case that animals are too long neg¬ 
lected in the fall. The cold weather comes on, the 
ground freezes, and the snow falls, yet the sheep or cattle 
are allowed to nm at large, shivering in the open air, and 
gleaning as they best can from the frozen earth, some¬ 
thing to satisfy their hunger. All animals, and man him¬ 
self, feels the necessity of protection more on the first at¬ 
tack of frost, than after the system is accustomed to its ac¬ 
tion; and there is no time in the year when care and at¬ 
tention to stock is better rewarded than in the first setting 
in of winter. It cannot be too firmly impressed on the 
mind of every farmer, that it is much easier to keep an 
animal in good condition, and will require much less food 
to do it, by not allowing him to fall away, than to restore 
him after he once becomes poor. Instead then of keep¬ 
ing my fodder until March, to raise my animals after the 
flesh is nearly all gone, I endeavor to so manage them 
that from the first cold weather, there shall be no falling 
off in their food or their flesh. 
Providing proper sheds or stables for stock of all kinds 
is indispensable, where the comfort of the animal and the 
profit of the breeder is at all consulted. Occasionally ani¬ 
mals that are unprotected, come through the winter well; 
but such animals are usually of the hardiest kind; and it 
must be remembered, that if unprotected, they come out 
in good condition, in all probability with protection and 
the same amount of food, spring would have found them 
fat. Such instances are the exceptions to a general rule, 
as the multitudes of poor stock that may be seen every 
where in the spring, where proper care and attention is 
not given, abundantly proves. One great office perform¬ 
ed by food is to keep the animal warm, and where this is 
done by stabling or sheds, so much food may be spared. 
Comfort is essential to taking on flesh, and the man who 
allows his stock to remain exposed and uncomfortable, 
must furnish extra supplies of food, or find his animals 
mere skeletons in the spring. Animals are grateful for 
their treatment, and the farmer who visits his yards daily 
with his basket of “ nubbins,” or his poultry yards with 
his pockets filled with corn, will find as they gather 
around him, plenty of evidence that such is the case. 
But experience has taught me, Messrs. Editors, that 
food is not all that animals require. They may live with 
this, but this alone will not give them high health, or 
keep them in the sleek condition the skillful farmer de¬ 
sires. How often do we see animals during the winter 
compelled to go without drink, or to obtain it encounter 
such obstacles as nothing but burning thirst could over¬ 
come. The exertion of wallowing through snow drifts, 
and traveling perhaps a mile daily for a drink of water, 
will take off more flesh than an ordinary feed of hay can 
give, and in the end will make the beast poor. There is 
scarcely a farm where this inconvenience might not be 
remedied, if more pains were taken to select a site for 
the farm buildings, with reference to this and other farm¬ 
ing comforts, rather than an anxiety to get as near the 
highway as possible, as if living in the road was the pro¬ 
per place for the farmer. Salt is necessary for the health 
of stock during the winter, but it should be fed to them 
frequently, and not in large quantities at a time. 
Sheep should never be kept together in large numbers. 
One hundred is the utmost limit that should be allowed, 
and if not more than half this number, so much the better 
for them. Disease is usuaiiv induced bv crowding too many 
into confined spaces, and when once introduced into such 
places is sure to spread. All animals should have their 
stables, yards, &c. well ventilated, and plenty of room 
for moving, or else should be occasionally allowed a 
chance for exercise. The good farmer is characterized 
by benevolence to his animals, r.ot less than by the gene¬ 
ral management of his tillage, or his crops. He will keep 
no more than he can keep well, and find his profits ra¬ 
ther in their excellence, than in their numbers. 
Orange Co., 1843. W. 
A GREAT FAIR PROPOSED AT BALTIMORE. 
It has been, I think, most happily suggested that the 
occasion of the great Conventions to be held in Balti 
more in May next, should be used for a grand display of 
American products, inventions, and manufactures of every 
kind. 
Never before have there been so many men of supe¬ 
rior intelligence and influence at home, collected at one 
point, from all the states in the Union, as there will be 
then at Baltimore, including the members of the two 
conventions, which it will be remembered, are to come 
off within a week of each other. No description that 
could be written of any great improvement or discovery 
in agriculture, art, or manufactures, if inserted in every 
paper of the Union, could so widely and so accurately 
disseminate a knowledge of it as would such an actual 
display of such improvement or discovery to the more 
than 50,000 people who will undoubtedly attend these 
two conventions. 
An obvious effect of such an exhibition would be a 
wonderful distribution of practical knowledge, and the 
establishment of agencies for vending the best machines 
and implements employed in every branch of industry, 
and the most finished products of American ingenuity. 
The “ premium flour at Rochester,” was branded and 
sold as such, in all the towns of this district. The ob¬ 
ject is so national, and free from all party or sectional 
taint, that all patriotic editors and citizens may unite in 
promoting it. Like many other things, however, pro¬ 
posed for the public good, the question is, how is it to he 
brought about? Who is to move in it, and how? Let me 
suggest an outline of proceeding, to be superseded by any 
better one that can be thought of. 
There is, for instance, a “ Mechanic’s Institute” in Bal¬ 
timore ; let them be called together, and a committee 
appointed to procure a suitable place and make the ne¬ 
cessary arrangements for the exhibition. Doubtless oth¬ 
er societies would unite in this useful enterprise. The 
city authorities would consult the interests of their con¬ 
stituents, and the reputation of their city, by doing the 
needful, and by inviting agriculturists, artizans, and 
manufacturers, to send forward the fruits of their indus 
try and skill from all parts of the country. Let the 
Franklin Institute and other associations move in it in 
Philadelphia—in New-York—in Boston. Steamboats 
might be chartered expressly for the occasion. Propri¬ 
etors of railroad and steamboat companies would doubt¬ 
less agree to reduce their charges for cars and boats for 
the transportation of things intended for the exhibition, 
no less from patriotic motives, than the consideration of 
the rich harvest they will reap from these conventions. 
Nothing can be accomplished without a beginning. Let 
then meetings be called by even a few public spirited in¬ 
dividuals in all the towns, and then the project will make 
its own way; one thing is certain—if we can get the 
editors of papers to take it in hand, the work is already 
half achieved; for after all, they are the great levers 
now by which to move a nation; nor is there a class of 
men which, as a class, contributes as much as the corps 
editorial, to public enterprises and public charities. If 
they give not as much as some more opulent classes di¬ 
rectly in money, they accomplish much more by the la¬ 
bor and the publication of thought? A ten line paragraph 
will often effect more than ten times ten“ silver dollars.” 
Washington, Dec. 21, 1843. I. S. S. 
CORN CROP. 
The editor of the Kent News, (Md.) raised the past 
season, 80 bushels of corn to the acre, on a lot of two 
acres—or measuring the lot so as to avoid loss by turn¬ 
ings, the yield was 84 bushels to the acre. The lot was 
clover sod, and was not plowed till planting season, 
when the clover was growing finely—a dressing of 
“ common” manure was plowed under with the clover 
—the corn was the “white twin sort,” and was plant xl 
in rows five feet apart, and the bills two to two and * 
half feet apart in the row. 
