Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-01-31
SHELTER YOUR STOCK.

SHELTER YOUR STOCK.
Notwithstanding much that has been writ
ten during a few years past, especially in the
agricultural journals, on the true principles of
Winter protection and feeding Of domestic
animals, there is still great amount of costly
ignorance on this subject.
Last winter we CHANGED upon the farm of a
man who possessed fair share Of intelligence
upon general matters, and we were not a little
surprised to find him still clinging to the old
opinion, that his stock wintered better when
exposed to cold, than if warmly housed. He
kept no account of the amount of food consul
med, but his observation had taught him
and truly that his sheep, for instance, consul
med more food in cold winter than in one Of
moderate temperature; and he reasoned that
if they ate more it indicated better health, and
faster growth of flesh andwool, and of course,
greater profit Following out this opinion,
he kept flock of sheep in an open field, expo
sed to bleak winds pelting storms. Inthis field
he had placed number of small stacks ofhay,
to one after another of which they had free ac-
cess, and upon which they made rapid inroads.
Their only shelter was afforded by the lee
ward side of these hay stacks, and by the stone
walls that surrounded the field, together with
grove upon the northern side that surround
cd the field, together with grove upon the
northern side that served to break off the wind
from that direction, but from entering which
they were prevented by the intervening fence.
He was quite sure they ate better when thus
exposed than if housed or allowed a warm
shelter around and under the barn His 9TH
er stock were treated in similar manner
Instead of warm sheds or stables they fed and
slept in a cold open yard. He said it kept
them in better "heart," and gave them shar-
per appctite-as to the latter, he was doubtless
correct.
But he, like thousands of others, had drawn
his conclusions from alse theory, which a
few careful'experiments would have corrected.
He should have considered that the profitable
ness of keeping animals depends not upon the
absolute amount of food they consume, but
upon the greater or less product of flesh, wool,
&c., obtained from a given amount of nutri-
ment. Had he weighed his animals in the
Fall divided them, keeping one part in close,
warm sheds or stalls, and the other part in the
colder situation, he would have found that the
protected animals, while consuming less food,
gained more in weight than the others, and in
May or June would have been in superior
health and heart. In the case referred to, it
was found necessary to give the sheep dose
of tar, by applying it on their noses in the
spring, to operate as tonic and to counteract
the "running at the nose," produced by colds,
which sheep 'catch" as well as men.
There is principle or two involved in feed
ing and nutrition, which, if we'll understood
by all who have the care of animals, would
render their labor doubly profitable. The food
consumed by animals serves double or treble
purpose. It supplies the waste of the system
produced by the natural wear of the various
organs, and keeps up respiration and the re-
sulting heat. What is left after these ends
are served, goes to increase the flesh or weight.
The pear depends upon the amount of ex-
ercise taken; hence the more quiet animals
are kept after allowing just enough exercise to
preserve the organs in a healthy state, the less
will be the amount of food required to supply
the waste.
The heat of the body results from the con-
sumption of carbonaceous food, especially the
oily and starchy portions. The union of the
carbon in talow candle or oil lamp with the
surrounding air, producing the heat and the
fame, has an exact counterpart in the lungs
and blood of the animal, where the air drawn
in at respiration unites with the oily or fatty
matter in the blood, and gives heat to the syS-
tenn.
On warm day not much heat is removed
from the surface of the body, and the animal
breathes less rapidly and fully, and less fat is
consumed to supply the wasted heat. If the
same amount Of oily food is consumed and di-
gested as on cold day, there will be larger
surplus to be stored away as fat. AS matter
of course, the colder the weather the less sur
plus fat, or profit, will be obtained from the
food.
Another point usually overlooked is this:
In the coarser substance-such as hay and
straw-copsumcd by animals, there is but
small proportion of oily or carbonaceous mat
ter and, to get at this, it is necessary to di-
gest prodigious quantity of food. This over
taxes the digestive organs, and results in more
or less debility.
We have here an explanation why smaller
quantity of meal, which supplies oil and starch,
(both of which are rich in carbon, the chief
heat-producing element,) will keep an animal
in so much better health.
The principles above indicated, which are
fully established by both scientific theory, and
oft-repcated experiment, lead to the certain
conclusion that, for all kinds Of animals, wheth-
er kept as stock; or for fattening, it is most
profitable to furnish warm shelter We repeat: