Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1875 — Spring Management of Animals. [ARTICLE]

Spring Management of Animals.

Spring is a critical time for all farm stock that have been wintered in stables unless care is used between the time when grass begins to start and that season when feed is flush and the weather settled. Many farmers care for their animals during; the winter with the greatest assiduity, giving them plenty of feed and water, and warm stables; but, nevertheless, as soon as grass comes, turn them out to shift for themselves, allowing them to lie out of nights, and often during the severe storms so prevalent in spring. The consequence is, such cattle, and especially horses, contract diseases, and often the foundation is laid for disability through life. The remedy is entirely simple and ought to suggest itself to every man who cares for stock. Stable them as carefully every night as you would have done during the winter, and until the weather is settled, and thereafter stable them whenever there are indications of a storm. This should invariably be done with horses and' colts. Cattle are not so. liable to injury and may be left free some time sooner if they have sheds to lie under, the roofs of which are water-proof. Sheep should never be exposed to driving storms, for although the fleece does not wet through easily, when it does become wet it is a long time in drying, and if, being wet, another storm occurs before the place is dry, it again accumulates moisture, and much more easily than before, so the sheep are kept cold, uncomfortable and liable to disease. Another reprehensible practice with many who depend upon English works for information is trimming the hair of the pasterns and fetlocks of farm-horses, early in the spring, to prevent the accumulation of mud thereon and to save washing when the teams are brought in from labor. This would be no evil, or, at most, no serious one, if the heels of the horse so trimmed were well washed upon being brought into the stable, and then wiped and rubbed dry j but this is so seldom done in farmers’ staples that it is the exception and not the rule. Where it is carefully practiced there is but little need of trimming, except with very long-haired animals, since the act of washing the heels and legs, and rubbing them thoroughly dry, reduces the length of the hair, and keeps it short and thin enough. Let us look at this subject for a moment. Take, for instance, an animal clipped all over, as is often practiced with pleasure-horses in city stables. The horse is sweated, perhaps. Now, if left to stand in the wind, without blankets, the consequence is apt to be a severe cold, or perhaps some inflammatory disease attacks the system. Let him stand in the wind without sweating, and he soon begins to shiver. Why? In the one case evaporation goes on swiftly; and in just proportion to the force of the evaporation will the temperature of the body be lowered. The pores of the skin close and the animal, if not taken dangerously sick, suffers excessive inconvenience. If the animal be not heated with work the force of the wind or the extremity of the cold carries away the heat of the body faster than the vital energy of the body can supply it, and thus another source of danger ensues. If the animal be clothed sufficiently warm when standing, whether in the street or the stable, and if the animal be properly groomed when taken from work, no inconvenience will result. If, however, the hair of the animal be long, as it always is in winter when the horse is exposed to the weather, the heat of the body is entangled in the hair, and thuß evaporation goes on equably and the heat of the body is conserved. So with the long hair on the heels. It is placed there by nature, and serves a double purpose': First, it prevents mud from sticking to the skin to any great degree ; and, second, when once wet the hair prevents chilling by the entanglement of heat next the skin. So also the long hairs which grow in the hollow under the jams and on the neck and along the belly and flanks should never be clipped or singed on farm-horses. They are placed there for a special purpose—the protection of the animal. It is true there is a wide difference of opinion in regard to trimming the heels of horses. It is contended by some that the long hair keeps the skin wet and cold for a long time, thus giving rise to scurfy heels, scratches, grease, and other diseases attendant upon this state. But

those who will take the trouble to ex amine the matter impartially will find that, although the outer hair may remain wet, or even frozen, the hair next the skin will be dry, and the skin itself warmer. Thus it is evident, if the limbs cannot be carefully washed and dried after becoming wet and muddy, the hair had better be left long, and the longer the better; but, if the reverse is to be the rule, then the shorter the more easily the work will be done. A simple and easy plan for farmers, and one which has worked well with us, i* to have a set of flannel leggings for each horse—long enough to wrap twice around the leg, from the knee or hock to the hoofs, and fastened with straps at top and bottom. When the horses are brought into the stable at night they should be immediately washed and rubbed with a wisp of hay until the circulation is active. Then put on the leggings, feed the teams, and you may go to supper with a consciousness that the teams are not suffering. Your supper eaten you will have bat little dif%ulty in rendering the teams comfortable for the night by a little additional rubbing. If this plan were adopted we should advise by all means not shearing the heels as closely as though they had been shaved, bat thinning the long hair of the fetlocks fully one-half and shortening the remainder in the same proportion. The reason is simple: it will save much time in cleaning. There is one thing more in this connection to be mentioned: In winter and during the spring no teams should be allowed to stand with seven legs wet and unprotected while one is being cleaned. If the hair be long, while six are being dried the other two will have dried themselves or nearly so. This team will have received all the injury possible and the others a proportionate amount. If, on the other hand, the hair is short they will have become more quickly chilled. So there is danger in any event. Hence, after considerable experiment, we decided upon leggings for our own stable many years Bince and found the plan to work well, especially for the heels of horses the hair of which was rather short. A vicious practice, and one that will be remembered in the hereafter if there is a ‘'horse-heaven,” is the plan, still persisted in by many, of giving the horses continued doses of salts, or other medicines, under the notion that humors generate during the winter and must be purged out. Some, whose hairs are gray enough, probably remember the spring-dosing that they as children had to undergo, to the same supposed end — to get the humors out of the blood. It pretty effectually contracted an ill-humor in the poor, heart-broken urchins and lassies who were obliged to swallow the nauseous doses. And for what end were they given? Well, we used to think, to gratify the malignancy or stupidity of some snuffy old medical granny. However, intelligence is progressive, and men and women are better for it; and so, pray, don’t dose your horse because IBs coat looks a little rough in the spring. It is the natural consequence of the season. Remember, a horse may carry much robust health under-a rough exterior. —From the “ Farm and Garden,” in Chicago Tribune.