Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-01-22
Watering Stock in Win ter.

PERHAPS there is nothing connected
with farm management that is so badly
attended to as the important matter of
supplying cattle with water during the
winter season. Cattle during this time
get no succulent food, no green clover
leaves, and in the majority of instances,
no esculent roots. Their food is essen
TALLY dried grass-dried almost to a crisp
which is sometimes lined or sailed to
insure its better preservation. Thanks
giving, Christmas and New Years, Sun.
days and week days there is little change
from this sort of diet unless it is to par
take of something that is drier vet, as
when they get foddering from the straw
stack. Occasionally, it is true, they are
treated to a partial meal of chat, corn
husks, wheat bran or something that is
equally sapless. Their feed is to them
what constant diet of popcorn, hard
tack and dessicated Goldfish would be to
human beings. EfZ
Now what are the facilities for watering
stock that are fed on this sort of food !?
Generally an out of door well, situated or,
some bleak spot at a goodly distance from
the farm or barn yard. A mass of slippery
ice surrounds it, and the trough during the
colder weather is lined with ice to a con-
siderable thickness. To this charming
spot the cattle have access, in many cases,
but once day; on which occasion there
is ordinarily a trial of strength to deter
mine which is entitled to the first draught,
and if the herd be a large one, some time
will elapse before all Of them can be ac-
commodated. s
Now there Isl great liability that cattle
which are supplied with water in this
manner will drink Unfortunately when they
| once get the opportunity. The large
amount of water taken in at once will
cool down the system several degrees, will
cause the dry food previously eaten to ex-
pand, and the animals will suffer great in
convenience from their stomaehs
becoming distended. On the other
hand, those - animals that have
had long to wait after they have been out
of the stable will lose their desire to drink
after they have become stiffened by cold,
and will find their appetite for water re-
turn after they have returned to warm
stable, if they are provided with such a
luxury. At least something of this kind
is experienced by human Beings. Their
desire for drink increases as their bodies
| become warm and decreases as they be-
come cold.
How shall this state of things be obyi.
ated? By giving the cattle access to water
more frequently than is now done and by
having the supply of water where it viii
not become chilled down to its freezing
point. There are many advantages dur.
ing cold and stormy weather in having a
supply of water in the stable as is the case
in our large cities. Cattle then can quench
thirst without at the same time taking
cold, as the water would be several degrees
warmer than if it stood out of doors, and
there would be no need of the cattle be-
coming chilled by exposure to the cold
and storms.
| As the matter now stands there is no
necessity for the supply of water for cattle
being stinted, or afforded only after long
intervals We have heard farmers saw
their cattle only needed water once day
during winter, and that they would sci.
dom drink more than once if they had the
opportunity. If this is the case it is the
result of education, and so far as the well
being Of the animal is concerned it is the
result Of a very bad education. No doubt
COW can be educated to go without water
for day as camel can for week; but
the condition Of beth of them is injured
by the abstinence. For an animal to thrive
on dried grass it is necessary that it should
take along with it an amount of water at
least proportiopate to that which was
given of during the process Of curing
Prairie Farnifr,