The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-11-24

Protect the Farm Machinery and Live
Stock.

Perhaps few farmers are aware of
the wastes and losses caused by fail
ure to properly house their agricul-
tural implements and live stock
Any one travelling over the country
cannot fail to be impressed with the
loss going on upon almost every
farm from these sources. Plows,
drills, harrows, moving machines,
reapers, wagons, harness, and tools
left lying around on the ground ex
posed to the weather to be soaked
by the rains and dried by the sun
shine until all the metal work is
roughened and destroyed by rust
and the woodwork is weatherdried,
cracked and warped, so that it can
not be used. Under these conditions,
a moving machine and reaper may
last two years. A wagon may last
perhaps five years at the outside. A
BOibhOlS vi
chine three years, whereas, if they
were placed in a dry shed and prop
erly oiled and painted when the
farmer puts them away after using
them, an ordinary moving machine,
reaper or wagon will last from ten
to fifteen years, with slight repairs,
and other implements and machines
in proportion.
Every hundred dollars that the
farmer permits to go to loss in this
way represents the interest on ST.
666.66, which might just as well be
preserved for the use of his family,
or to change the balance of his led
ger from the loss to the profit side.
The farmer who tries to keep his
live stock without shelter, and with
out providing for them proper pro-
lection from the weather, pays in
terest on a large amount of capital,
besides running the risk of losing
his animals and reducing the profit
derived from them.
Suppose the farmer is feeding ten
COWS. These animals must have
their bodies retained at normal
temperature in order to be in a
healthy condition, and to yield a
normal amount of milk or butter. If
the farmer keeps these animals prop
erly housed and fed, he can safely
calculate that the supply of milk
will be maintained quite uniform
during the winter time, supposing of
course that he feeds them properly.
If he does not house his cattle, and
permits them to be exposed to the
weather so that their bodies are
chilled, and the system must either
draw upon the milk supply, or the
tissues of the body, or both, in or
der to supply the necessary combus-
ton to keep up the animal heat, the
effect is at once visible upon the
yield of milk and upon the animal.
A prominent dairyman doing bust
ness in this State who makes it a
rule to weigh the milk product of
every COW every time she is MIXED,
told me that by actual measurement,
it cost him in damp, drizzly wealth
er. in the winter time, 50 in milk
product, every time he turned his
cows out in the day time. He sells
his milk in the city, and does not
manufacture it into butter so that
the reduction of every quart in the
production of the milk was prompt
| ly indicated i'll his cash returns The
average farmer either never thinks
Of this loss, or if he does, neglects
to take it into account. That gentle
man, by housing his cows and pre-
venting them from getting chilled
by the damp weather and cold blasts,
saves his 50 per day. Let every
farmer figure what this will amount
to. Whatever it may be, in that
case it amounted daily to more than
the wages Of any farm laborer in the
State of West Virginia. The same
principle applies in greater or less
degree to all domestic animals. No
farmer in West Virginia, in my
Judgment, can afford to keep live
stock without sheltering them. 1t
is too much like lighting cigars
with SIS bills.
JOHN A. MYERS,
Director W. Va Ayr. Experiment