Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-11-09
Time Wasted in Doing Chores

INV uihSichSS oCtWccu TIE COSt anu
the price received for farm products is
not profit. In some places there is more
money made in selling cattle at ten dol
lars each, than there is IN another place
where they sell for fifty dollars. In the
Northern States, where cattle and sheep
mus. be fed for six or seven months OF
the year, what should be the profits is
often swallowed up in the hard labor
expended in the care Of the animals.
Stock for market should be kept grow
ing every day OF their lives. The writer
by no means favors neglect, but he
wishes to call attention to few com.
mon errors in arrangements for winter
care OF stock
For the most perfect protection from
fire, farm buildings should be small and
scattered, one in place, over the farm;
but for convenience in care of animals,
they should all be in one graup. For
very large farms, the extra cost OF NOV
ing the hay and grain to the barns, and
the manure back again TO the fields,
must not be lost sight of. There is too
little attention paid TO saving of hand
labor. Barns are often placed too far
from the house. The corn.crib stands
some rods from the barns or hog.pen,
where all the grain is to be fed out. The
sheep-barn is not near the cattle-barn;
the pig-pen is off by itself; the chicken
coop is set in another place. The corn
stalks are loaded and stacked where
they must be again loaded before feed
ing. The corn is carried by hand, a
bushel at a time, in basket to the
barns, pig-pen and chicken.coop. This
trip is made several times day for
months OF each year. The corn is she'll
ed, if shelled at all, by hand shelter.
In some cases the straw and stalks are
cut by machinery i'll adapted for the
work. The arrangement requires too
much hand labor. Roots are dug,
drawn, and buried in the field; again
drawn to the barn, handled, cut, hand
led again to mix with cut straw, and
then carried to feed to animals, some OF
which are six or ten rods distant. Into
several isolated stables the basket is
lifted over sill two feet high, and then
carried past animals To each stall. Ma
nure is thrown out daily through num-
erous small openings, high DIP, back OF
each stall, or ii is loaded on wheelbar-
rows, or showed or thrown for some dis
lance out the main door. From the
time of cutting to feeding more thought
should be given to saving OF labor.
More study should be devoted toairang-
ing everything for convenience. Hay,
straw and grain move easily when NOV
ed but little way, and then down an
inclined plane.
Cannot something be done on most
farms to save time and labor in water
ing domestic animals? Is there not
some way to save handling, once or
twice ont OF six or eight times, all the
hav and grain and coarse fodder OF the
farm, and yet not neglect the health
and comfort OF the animals?
Some farmers we know with two men
take better care OF a certain number OF
horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poul-
try than others who employ four or SIX
men for the same number OF animals.
Each set of men is equally faithful. In
one case things are handy; in the other
they are not. Some have tried and like
the plan OF hauling manure, as it &C
cumulates. directly from the stalls to
the field. The back OF the stalls are
wide enough to admit a team and sleigh
or wagon. Some others are equally
neat and successful with cow-stables
from which the manure is not removed
but once in year. Those who have
tried 1t say the cows keep cleaner, with
less bedding, than where the manure Is
daily removed. There is also less olien-
sve smell about the premises. The
managers are arranged to lit up as the
litter accumulates. Probably most
readers will condemn this plan without
trying ii, but the fact remains that's
who have tried it will never return to
the old way OF removing the manure
every day.