1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
19 
Wintering Domestic Animals. 
• 
Most important annual era is no.w commencing with 
the farmers of the whole country. They are beginning 
a period of nearly half a year, when all their domestic 
animals must be fed chiefly on dried or artificial food, 
and when cold, storms, wind, and snow and rain, are all 
operating to weaken or waste the flesh of their farm 
stock, unless a good system of protection and precau¬ 
tion is adopted at the outse*. 
The vastness and importance of this branch of suc¬ 
cessful husbandry, is almost beyond comprehension. 
The census returns inform us that 600 millions of dol¬ 
lars are invested in the live stock of the Union; yet 
this does not furnish a full index to their value, which 
is intimately blended with the manufacture of manure, 
the main-spring in the production of all crops—and on 
them depend the forces, the general economy, and not 
only their direct profits in the sale of butter, cheese, 
wool, beef, pork, lard and tallow;, and living animals, 
but indirectly the profits of all kinds of grain and 
root-growing, with which the animals are as intimate¬ 
ly connected as the woof and the warp of the weaver’s 
fabric. 
The losses from the bad wintering of farm stock are 
enormous. Estimating that one-half of their value is 
required to carry them through the average four 
months of winter, (which in the extreme north is near¬ 
ly six months,) we have three hundred millions of dol¬ 
lars to be expended upon them the country over, be¬ 
tween the present time and the period of spring pas¬ 
ture. Would it not be safe to say one-third, or one 
hundred millions,—enough to make a Pacific rail¬ 
way,—are annually lost, literally sunk,—by bad man¬ 
agement ? Let us look a little at this part of the sub¬ 
ject. 
We have shown on former occasions w r hy animals 
must consume food to sustain their warmth in cold 
weather, as well as for the support of their flesh. A 
man who rides in an open r cutter in the_cold all the 
day, although nearly destitute of exercise, will find it 
necessary to eat nearly twice as much as when taking 
as much exercise in a warm stove-room; and every 
farm laborer has found that he eats more in chopping 
cord-wood in the wintry forest, than in cradling wheat 
under a burning sun. It is the same with animals; 
when exposed to wind and storms, a large portion of 
the food they consume, must of necessity go to keep up 
the heat; and the farmer must either give them addi¬ 
tional food, or see them decline in flesh—for the 
warmth is a part of vitality, and must be kept up, 
flesh or no flesh, while the animal, lives. 
Careful observers who have provided ample and 
comfortable shelter, think that one-third of the food of 
eattle is saved by such protection, the condition as to 
flesh remaining the same as when subjected to expo¬ 
sure. When they are suffered to lie on wet straw, or 
on damp ground with no straw at all, the cold affects 
their wet bodies still more. Milch cows give more and 
better milk, when well cared for, and horses are 
stronger and more lively for work. Shoep furnish finer 
wool and more of it, fewer perish by winter, and all 
come out in better condition in spring, when protected 
from the blasts of the wintry tempests ; a skilful sheep 
raiser thinks his sheep-barns and sheds were thus paid 
for in two winters. The wintering of store pigs would 
be a far less expensive item of farm economy, if warm, 
comfortable and clean quarters were always assigned 
them. 
In addition to the immediate and present loss from 
exposure, there is another formidable loss, of a more 
remote but not less real character. This is the check 
or stunting in growth which yonng animals receive, 
and which they never get over. Let two be fed and 
treated precisely alike, at all periods of their growth, 
with the exception of exposing one to snow, rain, mud, 
and discomfort for a single winter, while the other has 
warm dry quarters and good regular food; and that 
winter will be impressed upon them, as an indelible 
historical mark, in their relative sizes, for the rest of 
their lives. To say nothing about the loss of fodder by 
treading in mud, feeding irregularly or in over and 
under doses, and out of time, and other wasteful prac¬ 
tices, we are satisfied that the above-mentioned causes 
occasion a waste of at least one-third of the wintering, 
and that the hundred-million estimate is not extrava¬ 
gant 
Why will farmers continue longer to pursue this 
costly, slip-shod treatment? Why not lay down for 
themselves a set of rules, something like the following, 
and show that they have industry and energy to prac¬ 
tice them with rigid exactness: 
1. To shelter all fodder well, that the weather may 
not waste its strength. 
2. To shelter well the straw for litter, that it may 
be always dry and comfortable. 
3. To feed regularly, both as to time and quantity, 
that the animals may: never fret for delayed meals, or 
from stinted supplies. 
4. To give every night a good bed of dry litter, that 
animals ma/not become chilly from dampness. 
5. To keep their places of repose clean and their 
hides well curried, that they may not suffer the dis¬ 
comfort of filth. 
6. To provide ample racks and feeding-boxes to pre¬ 
vent a waste of roots, meal, and fodder. 
7. To give special attention to growing animals, that 
they may not become irrecoverably stunted. 
Town Agricultural Societies. 
Messrs. Editors —In your article on “ Agricultu¬ 
ral Fairs,” in a recent number of the Country Gentle¬ 
man, a few remarks were made upon the importance of 
Town Societies, which, in consequence of the lack of 
public appreciation, are particularly worthy of addi¬ 
tional remark. 
State and County Societies reveal to us the improved 
stock, the improved farm implements and farm pro¬ 
ducts of an enlightened agriculture ; but they do not 
bring practical intelligence to the understanding of 
each individual member. This is the peculiar province 
