34 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
Jan. 
edge of the potting bench. The pots should be 
plunged into the ground, or in coal ashes, putting 
a piece of broken pot for each to stand on, to pre¬ 
vent the worms entering. In October the pots 
may be brought into the stove or green-house, to 
bloom. Liquid manure water given at the root 
twice a week, will add to the beauty of the foliage, 
and to the size and color of the bloom ; but they 
will flower well in the above compost without it. 
The best varieties are La Fiancee, white; Daph- 
nis, purple; Bozard, yellow; Circe, rosy pink, 
and Bouton de Versailles, mulberry. 
What shall we do for Fodder th's Winter? 
The present scarcity of hay throughout a large 
portion of the country, has caused the anxious in¬ 
quiry to be made a thousand times, 11 How shall 
we bring our animals safely through the winter ?” 
Many have answered it by selling off at low prices 
a large portion of their stock; but we believe that 
taking the country at large, the entire deficiency 
might be made up, by saving what is now wasted 
—and that too, wasted in a way of which one-half 
our ordinary farmers are entirely unconscious. 
“ Is it the treading of hay by the cattle into the 
mud?” eagerly asks one —“ Is it by neglecting 
the use of the straw-cutter?” inquires another— 
“ Is it by irregular and improvident feeding-—by 
allowing animals to injure each other—by permit¬ 
ting our hay to be spoiled by exposure?” are the 
various questions of others. It is none of these 
sources of loss, although all are to be carefully 
avoided, that we refer to. What we mean is 
the wasteful practice of using hay and meal 
for the simple purpose of fuel —for maintaining 
the animal warmth of sheep and cattle—but which 
ought to be used solely for keeping up their flesh. 
<f What! burn up our hay to heat our barns and 
sheds? Impossible!” 
Permit us briefly to explain this matter, for the 
benefit of that portion of our readers who may 
not have given it their attention. 
Let us inquire why it is that the human body, 
and the bodies of warm blooded animals generally, 
(except at the surface merely,) are always at the 
same temperature, whether in summer or in win¬ 
ter, in cold climates or in hot—why, in the intense 
cold within the arctic circle, where the mercury 
of the thermometer is frozen solid, the heat of the 
body is as great as under the burning sun of the 
torrid zone? In those cold regions the heat is 
constantly escaping from the body at a prodigious 
rate, in the same way that the heat of a stove is 
constantly passing into the air which surrounds it, 
and is carried off by the currents. Where does it 
all come from to supply this constant waste? 
By breathing, a large quantity of oxygen from 
the air is constantly received into the lungs. The I 
circulation of the blood brings this oxygen into con¬ 
tact with the carbon and hydrogen of the blood, 
both of which are derived from the food. The 
oxygen combines with these two elements, and in 
the act of combining heat is given out, in precise¬ 
ly the same way, only more slowly, that it is giv¬ 
en out by the burning of wood. Combustion in 
pure oxygen gas is very intense, and its heat great¬ 
er than that of the hotest furnaces; combustion 
in common air is slower, and the heat correspond¬ 
ingly less intense. But in the animal body many 
hours are required to consume the same amount 
of oxygen as in quick combustion. But the real 
amount of heat is the same; its intensity is dimin¬ 
ished as the time is lengthened. This is further 
proved by the fact that animals which breathe ra¬ 
pidly, have the highest animal heat. A child has 
a more rapid respiration than a man, and we ac¬ 
cordingly find its temperature two or three de¬ 
grees higher. Birds breathe more rapidly than 
quadrupeds, and have four or five degrees more 
of heat. Fishes and reptiles, known as cold¬ 
blooded animals, breathe very slowly. Active ex¬ 
ercise increases the amount of bodily heat, by 
throwing the blood more rapidly into the lungs, 
and which thus combines faster with the oxygen, 
or in other words produces a more rapid combus¬ 
tion. 
Hence more food is required for animals in win¬ 
ter, to keep up the more rapid waste of heat. And 
hence too, domestic animals, exposed to cold winds 
and snow storms, require more food than those 
sheltered in stables. A starving animal of any 
kind is soonest frozen to death. Beasts of prey 
in the arctic regions, far exceed in voracity those 
of the torrid zone. The inhabitants of the ex¬ 
treme north consume almost incredible quantities 
of food. Every farmer knows that it requires more 
grain to fatten beef and pork in the depth of 
winter^ than during the milder weather of au¬ 
tumn. 
Now, when domestic animals are exposed to the 
severe cold of winds and snow storms, there must 
be three resulting alternatives. Either a large 
amount of food must be given them to keep up the 
heat, besides what is needed for aliment; or 
the flesh must be drawn upon and reduced for 
the same purpose, developing the skeleton; or 
else the animal must freeze to death. One of 
these three alternatives is inevitable. The last, 
no one desires; the first is a costly process; the 
second is not less to be dreaded. Now, our ad¬ 
vice to all is, to avoid this triple-horned dilemma, 
by securing the warmth of comfortable shelter. ^ 
To prevent, therefore, the consumption of high- > 
priced fodder for the purposes of fuel, a most V 
