Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-01-17
Keenine Cattle Warm.

If we look abroad at the habits or necessities
Of people, we find as we advance from south to
north, the consumption of animal food increases.
1t has been long known both to chemists and OBJ
serving men, that a cold atmosphere requires an
quantity of food to sustain life and health.
And this observation is just as applicable to the
cattle and horses whose home is at our barns, as
it is to our own species. Ifthey are kept warmly
housed from the storm and shielded from unne-
cessary exposure, they will need less food than if
left unprotected. The winter profit to be real
lied from mich COWS, is unquestionably much af
Gected by their treatment in this respect. I copy
the following remarks from the fourth part Of
Johnston's Agricultural Lectures as particularly
point. n. $.
"The degree of warmth in which the animal
is kept, or the temperature of the atmosphere in
which it lives, affects the quantity Of food which
the animal requires to eat. The heat of the an
imal is inseparably connected with its respiration.
The more frequently it breathes, the warmer it
becomes, and the more carbon it throws off from
its lungs. Place a man in a cold situation, and
he will either starve, or he will adopt some means
of warming himself. He will probably take ex-
%ercise, and by this means cause himself to breathe
quicker. But to do this for a length of time, he
must be supplied with more food. For not only
does he give off more carbon from his lungs, but
the exercise he takes, causes a greater natural
waste also ofthe substance ofhis body.
$50 it is with all animals. The greater the
difference between the temperature Of the body
and that of the atmosphere in which they live, the
more food they require to KEEN them warm, and
to supply the natural waste. A proper attention
to the warmth ofhis cattle or sheep, therefore, is
of great practical consequence to the feeder o
stock. BY keeping them warm, he diminishes
the quantity of food which is necessary to sustain
them, and leaves a larger proportion for the pro
duction of beef or mutton.
"Various experiments have been lately pub
lished which confirm the opinions above deducer
from theoretical considerations. On these | shall
only mention one by Mr.. Childers, in which
twenty sheep were folded in the open field, ant
twenty of nearly equal weight, were placed unde
a shedin a yard. Both lots were fed for thre
months-January, February, and March-upor
turnips, as many as they choose to eat, half
pound of linsecd cake and half a pint of barle
each sheep, per day, with a little hay and salt
The sheep in the field consumed the same guam
tity of food, all the barley and oil cake, and abou
10 pounds of turnips per day, from the first t
the last, and increased on the whole 36 stones
lbs. Those under the shed consumed at first
much food as the others, but after the third wee
they eat 2 lbs. less, or only Is lbs. a day. Ofth
, oil-cake, they also ate about one-third less tina
{ the other lot, and yet they increased in weigh
Sc stone 6 pounds or 20 stones more than tn
others.
"Thus the cold and exercise in the field, cal
tsed the one lot to convert more of their food int
dung, the other more of it into mutton.
! "The absence of light has also a material il
: Auence upon the effect of food in increasing tn
: weight of animals. "-Farmer's Cabinet.