The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-01-05

count of the cost of feeding any animal
onhls place thirty years ago would
have been nex to impossible.
AS feeding should begin young, il
follows that If the animals cannot be
raised on the farm, they should be pur-
chased when young, or from herds
whose owners have always fed we'll and
maintained them in a growing condi.
ton. This involves the ruling out of
the scrawny, half-starved stock so COM
mon on the market in rural neighbour
hoods, and makes it better for beef
consumers. In fact it may be said that
the reform begins on the meat block.
for consumers demand an article that
need not necessarily 60 into hash as the
last chance of utility. The demand of
the is passed along the line
of middle.men until it reaches the
stock feeder, and after a few bad sales
it dawns upon him that the only mar
ket for tough old cows and that class of
lean kline Is at home, and then under
protest. The consequence is that we
shall have less of this class of stock In
the country, as there is no profit in
starvation of cattle or land.
The winter feeder, to carry on his
work, will need a better barn than is
ordinarily SEEM, and less of the old hid
eous barnyard. To gain. rapidly in
flesh, cattle Il be comfortable, and
there is not much comfort in a barn
yard, or in a stable full of cracks and
knot-holes through viii III the wind and
snow may drive at every gale. Good,
light, warn but easily ventilated barns,
are needed; and the study of such
structures, SO that they can be conven.
lent and cheap, can be one item of
winter work in case a farmer has not
yet obtained his ideal. I'm feeding
stock, particularly if there are quite a
number, success depends largely upon
convenience in getting food to the spot
wanted for distribution, and then in
the mode of distribution.
If cooking is to be practiced, how to
do it safely and rapidly and in the
cheapest available gu antities, is a con-
sideration. The disposition of the
manure is another. Many farmers ia.
o cellars under the stock, and if
properly treated with such absorbents
as will keep down rapid fermentation
and Odors until the manure can he
properly disposed of, there is no reason
able doubt of the value of cellars, IF
there are none, il involves a good deal
ofimmediate extra work, as the man
ure must be disposed of speedily in
some way. The old-time practice of
pitching it out of doors through a win.
dow by hand until it is piled up several
feet deep against the barn, with the
rains and the water from the roof beat
ing down upon it, is untidy and waste
full, and unworthy of any good farmer.
The cellar is the best place for it until
spring opens. Every barn must have
q roof, and a barn cellar needs no extra
roof. Its extra needs are the excava-
ton and the wall, and in the case of a
side hill barn, which many farmers can
have, very little excavation is needed.
In most of the Northern States stones
are plenty and cost little except the
hauling, and If old stone fences are
pulled down and made into barn base.
ment walls, or stone barns several feet
thick, or barns with double walls to
avoid sudden changes of temperature,
30 much the better.
The inside fence system is q nuisance,
and a most serious drawback to sue.
cessfnl farming. They were built to
subserve a system which the advanced
farmer is learning to cOndemn-that of
!! pasturage. Pasturage is we'll enough
on the western plains with herdsmen in
the saddle to watch the flock, but it is
doomed in the older settled regions
where land is in demand, and where
labor must be more and more concen-
trated to make farming pay. Great
barns with all the room necessary for
housing stock all the year, must be
more and more the order hereafter.
The cost of fences will be saved and
part of this put into the barn and it's
accessories.
With its work, rest and leisure CON-
bined, the winter may be made about
the pleassntest season of the year.
Work rarely compels immediate atten-
tioh, as crops do in summer. What is
postponed on n day can generally be
continued on another day weeks after,
IT desirable. There is more variation
in what must engage the farmers at
tention. In summer the days are long,
and they must usually be improved to
The utmost, and the nights given to
rest; but in winter the days are short.
and the air is so bracing or cool that
WEAKNESS is not so oppressive as in
summer, while the long and often
charming evenings furnish opportuni-
ties for recreation. There are those
who talk as If they would saioy a couu.
try where there shOah be eternal
spring, with flowers, irnt and grains
In all the months of the year, but there
is no country without its extremes, and
If there were it is doubtful if IL would
be half as enjoyable as the var iations of
the temperate zone. The farmer who
with his family makes the best rational
use OF his opportunities can deem him
sell a happy man.-[Country Gentle
man.