Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-01-14
TALKS TO FARMERS.
At the Belmont County Farmers
Institute.
Two Timely Topics Ably Discussed.
Winter Care and Management of
Farm Stock by Gen. j. C..
McNary, Canonsburg, Pa.

McNary, CanOnsburg, Pa.
We the farmers of the North Ohio
Valley live in country peculiarly adapt
ed to stock raising. Ne where else, per-
haps, are all the conditions so we'll sup
piled for the successful development of
itbis branch of agricultural pursuit
lOther places may excel in this OF that
particular while wanting in others.
Here we have no want for anything.
Oar gently sleping hillsides, furrowed
ever and anon with the sparkling rivu-
lets of fresh water, and covered with
nearly all the different varieties of the
most nutritious grasses-ths delightful
shade tree and the dry hill top for a
conch-a very paradise for the herd and
the flock.
But you say, that is all well enough
for the summer, but our long winters,
how about them? True we have our
winters; but are they an unmixed evilP
Do we have nothing to compensate for
all this extra feed and care-would we
be better off if it were all summer? Not
if We wish to have the highest develop
ment of animal life. Take the human
family as an example. Where do you
find the most energetic, daring, enduring,
progressive men, and the purest, fairest
women? Is it not where there is sum-
mer enough to nourish and expand a
complete physical nature, together with
the hardening, invigorating effect of the
winter, to bring out the best possibilities
of human hand and brain?
Where has history recorded the fact
of a southern natisn subduing more
northern? An eminent writer says but
one such instance is on record. Another
writer remarks, that without the infu+
sion of Northern blood, our more south+
1ern cities, New Orleans among them,
would in very short time become de+
cayed and valueless, if not extinct Ii
requires the rigor of our northern win
ters to develop the hardest. grandest,
most infusive type of animal life. Then
if we have to provide for and feed
through our long winters, we are cent
pensated in the superiority it gives the
herd and the flock.
Our peculiar advantage in this regard
has made US already famous as stock
growing country, and covered our fields
with the finest specimens in type and
blood; and Aot Of any one class of the
domestic animal alone, but of all the
different breeds or varieties Indigenous
to the temperate latitude in which we
live. Also, all the subdivisions of the
same breed, by which we have very
great variety of animals, each well suit
ed to the speciality for which it was bred.
And that we may rightly profit by the
peculiar advantages we possess, and be
worthy place among the stock breeders
of this favored country, there are a
great many questions arise, which de-
mand thoughtful and intelligent consid-
GRAFTON the kind of stock, the object for
which you keep it, how we shall keep,
how we shall feed it in summer, and
how we shall feed it in winter-all these
are important, and in their solution is
the measure of failure or success
And amongst them all, there is per-
haps no one more important than the
one you have assigned US for present con-
sideration, "The Winter Care of Stock"
You may be ever so fortunate in natu-
raj advantages, be ever SO wise in the
selection of your kind or breed, be a very
philosopher in methods and theories, and
ever so pains taking in all else, yet if
you fail here it is fatal to all success.
In summer, natural bounty is so prot
fuse, the weather so pleasant. that our
stock may live and even thrive without
constant care, but in winter it is not So
When nature closes her store houses, the
farmer must open his; and instead of
the lee side of the hill or the fence cor
ner, be must provide more secure shell
ter from the storm and chilling blast.
This provision for the winter care is
the work of the summer before. The
fact is, that so intimately connected is
the summer preparation for the winter
in this whole matter. that it is hard to
separate the two. The proper and sue
cessful winter care of stock should begin
the May before. For like the old adj
age, what is well begun is half done,"'
so stock we'll summered is half wintered.
The poor, ill-thriven animal in the fall,
is as a rule, dead loss to winter; 1t costs
more to keep it than it is worth in the
spring. If perchance it has not, what is
it to be the luck of lousy calf, live all
winter and die in the spring. No win>
ter care can compensate for or retrieve
the loss of bad summer care. To add
flesh in winter is done at extra expense
of food, and only possible Oh animals
well kept through the summer. But
few farmers aim to add flesh in winter.
but console themselves with the ref1ec-
tion of the old man who after long and
toilsome life, said, he and Sallie had al
ways got along very well they had moth
ing when they started, and had always
held their own. For sure it is if you
have poor animal in the fall you will
have poor one in the spring (or dead
one.) To make them hold their own
through the winter is about all that can
be done profitably, and may he said to be
a proper ambition, as the increase then
is too costly for profit. But the charac-