Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-01-26
stock Need Best Care Now.
From the Utica Herald.

We believe that, as a rule, stock re-
ceive the shabbiest treatment of the
year during the late fall and early win
ter. And this is the very period when
they should have the best care. Every
farmer knows that it is "half the bat
tie" to bring his stock through to steady
foddering in good condition. II flock
of sheep comes to the barn in Decem-
Der, pinched and scrawny, it will leave
the barn in the spring thinned in
numbers, with wool loose and ready to
be pulled off by the first brambie it
touches, and thus deprecated more
than the cost of its wintering. II the
cows come to the stable and foddering,
pinched and thin, by reason of frost
bitten pastures and heavy milking, the
owners need not be surprised if half of
them lose their calves or their lives
during the winter. In fact, may not
the treatment of the cows during the
late fall and early winter be one of the
chief causes Of the growing frequency
of abortions in dairy districts
The dairyman is anxious to make his
COWS pay him all they will. He has
good excuse for being greedy, we ad-
NIT. Even the consumers of butter
and cheese, who are accustomed to
complain SO loudly of the high prices
of those articles, must acknowledge it,
too, after reading the exhibit of their
cost made at the last meeting of the
Central New York Farmers Club. Yes,
the dairyman is no danger of getting
suddenly rich, even if successful in get
ting the largest possible yield from his
COWS. But many of the devices that
he resorts to, for. comprising that end,
are crying examples of mistaken econo-
my. They are suggested by his. greed
rather than his good sense, and result
too frequently, as measures adopted
by greed generally do, in kill
ing the hen that lays the golden egg
He thinks there is no need in
foddering his cows until the pastures
are covered with snow, and the SILVER
ing animals stand lowing about the
barn. As long as they will roam over
the pastures, picking at the frozen and
innutritious tufts of grass, he thinks
they are doing well enough. They
shrink in their mess badly, but he
I eos tnem apples, OF pumpkins, OF
leaves from his root crops, and they re-
gain their usual flow of milk. Now
they are certainly well enough. But
he forgets that he is burning the can
die at both ends; that he is trying to
"eat his cake and keep it, too, v
though he is temporarily succeeding.
When he comes to stable his cows for
the winter they are lean and weak. Pretty
soon, some of them begin to abort. He
thinks they need heartier food. He
gives them a little meal. in addition to
his best hay; for he has now fed out all
the ''odds and ends"-the poor corn,
fodder and the worse straw. But this
sudden change in the diet only aggra-
Yates the difficulty. 1t makes his COVE
feverish, but not healthy and strong.
Still more abort, or, if they escape this,
and drop their calves alive, they fall
victims to milk-iever, black-leg, pleuro
pneumonia, or some other of the many
Ills that badly treated COWS become he'll
to. He is perplexed. He can see nj
reason why his herd should be SO afiict
ed; and he very philosophically conlud.
! it is his 'auck, when there is no '9uck'