Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-15
FARM AND ORCHARD.
GOOD SHELTER ESSENTIAL IN THE
RAISING OF FARM STOCK.
Necessity of Carbonaceous Food in Win.
ter-Cross-Bred PouItry-salt for
Milking Cows-Farm Notes.


were more acres of dense timber land on
every farm than of cleared or tillable land,
the live stock found protection from bleak
winds in the timber and thickets. The
early settler was relieved of the expense
which comes to this generation of farmers,
who are compelled to provide shelter for
all the farm animals. There are many
sons of the early settlers who claim that
live stock does better without shelter, and
who allow their cattle to SILVER on the
Ieeward of rail fence, and their pigs to
bury themselves in deep holes in the
ground in their effort to keep warm. So
long as there are no storms of wind, rain
and snow, it is true that these animals do
fairly well without shelter, provided grain
is abundant and literally fed. The feed
must be such as will furnish heat. Straw
and frosted grasses are not rich enough in
the heat-formers to supply the warmth and
leave everything for growth.
1t is true that at Elkhart, H., there is a
successful cattle-feeder who has won a
worldwide reputation for shipping more
export cattle than any other feeder in the
United States. But he has vast tract of
land set in blue grass, where grass can be
found by his cattle at all times, winter and
summer, and where his cattle are fed freely
of corn twice day the year round. Feed
is cheap, and land is cheap, and he claims
it costs less to haul corn out and spread on
the blue grass sod than to feed it in stables
and sheds. 1t may take more feed, says he,
but we save more in labor and cost of sheds
than we lose in feed and snow on steers
back is a good blanket When cattle sold
for six or seven cents, he was satisfied with
his profits; but since the decline in price,
we understand he is questioning whether
he will not have to provide winter protec-
ton for his cattle or quit the business.
His method stands as an illustration of
one extreme, while the close housing of
cattle in barns so warm that no frost enters
to chill the beasts or freeze the water or
manure, and where the water is warmed
and cooked food is supplied, is the other
extreme 1t is needless to say that the
mean between these is one to be COM
mended 1t is quite natural that the
dairymen of Northern Ohio, New York
and Massachusetts, whe keep COWS as ma
chimes to convert feed into milk, should
handle them as to secure the greatest milk
flow possible for feed consumed, and as
soon as a machine or COW fails replace her
with new one. But the breeder or feeder,
whose aim is an animal that has the con-
stitution and vigor to breed best or feed
most proftably cannot endanger his success
by overlooking and depriving his animals
of the sunlight, fresh air and exercise,
without which he cannot secure the health
and vigor in his herd so essential to profit.
So we see the use intended has much to
do in deciding the kind of shelter and
feed our live stock should have this winter
We can state it as a rule, the animals in
tended for milk and flesh should have less
exposure than those intended for breeding
and labor.
The dairyman and the feeder must sup
ply abundant feed and shelter. The milk
and increased growth simply measure the
amount of feed consumed more than is
necessary TO support life As heat is an
essential of animal life, and must come
from feed or shelter, or both, and as sheds
and even stovewood or coal consumed in a
stove furnishes heat more economically
than grain consumed by the COW or steer,
II follows that shelter and even taking the
chill off Of the water for such animals is
better economy than to drive them to a
spring, or stream, or trough, where the ice
must be broken and they must be chilled
with cold winds and ice water.
Abundance of water Is necessary to
health when the animals are kept on dry
feed, and in freezing cold weather no ami
mails will drink enough ice water to sup
ply the demands of their condition, and
every gallon of water drank at a temporal
ture below blood-heat taxes the supply of
animal heat, or of feed, which produces the
heat, Just the difference between 800 and
go. As to the matter of water, we are of
the opinion that it is profitable to supply
water to our stock in winter at the tenn
perature it holds as it comes from we'll
1t is cool enough to stimu ate action of the
system, and it is not cold enough to chill
the animal and check the process of diges-
tion, as will heavy draught of ice-cold
water Dairymen claim their COWS drink
more water in the winter, Wien the drink
Is warmed to 900, than when it is given at
500. But their aim is milk, while the aim
of the breeder and farmer IS to secure the
comfort which fayors the hest digestion
which means greatest vigor and growth
and best pay for food given and care be-
slowed.
That shelter is profitable for feeding
animals is amply illustrated by the ex-
.perienee of the most successful feeders
that is, the feeders who get the most pounds
of growth for the bushels or tons of feed
Prof Stewart, in his great book on Feed
ing Animals" gives striking case Of a
farmer who fed thirty head Of sheep under
a warm shed and like number of the
same weight and condition at the start, in
an open field, with no shelter. The two
lots were fed through the winter all the
turnips and coarse fodder they could eat.
Those fed in the open field gained one
pound each per week, while the other lot
consumed less feed and gained three
pounds each per week. If a farmer ex-
poets to continue, from year to year, feed
ing sheep, or cattle or hogs, surely such a
gain in growth and saving of feed will pay
a handsome interest on the cost of the
shed
While shelter is profitable, let not the
inexperienced 90 TO the extreme Of max
ing the barns close and sitting, without
ventilation. There is danger, disease and
loss not far ahead. Breeding stock and
store animals must have sunshine, fresh
air and exercise daily to keep in their
best health. Perhaps calves can do better
without exercise or sunlight than colts,
sheep or pigs. Let the practice be to
shelter during winter atnight and while
stormy, and allow outdoor exercise when
ever the sun shines.
No animal needs exercise daily more
than the brood SOW or the eve. They
must have It along with dry shelter, if
they are to bear US healthy, vigorous off
spring. When the weather is very cold
there is need of care that the animals do
not spend too much time in their beds or
.tl1 IF +bev ore conneIled to 90 ont