Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1880 — Wintering Cattle. [ARTICLE]

Wintering Cattle.

Protection of dumb beasts against inclement weather may be said to be the basis of farm improvement. Just in proportion to a man's care for the stock under his charge can yon measure his degree of progress toward the point of perfection that we should all struggle to attain. The higher types of thoroughbred cattle that reach these shores with such blood-like and elegant forms are created almost solely by great care in protecting them through Tong lines of breeding, from the hardening and roughing effects of exposure. In this way we can readily see how much the English stock-breeder is ahead of ns in his system of handling cattle. We are, however, a people quick to imitate the practices- of others when they strike us favorably. In this way we have produced copies of the English race-horse and fat cattle that have been able to stand the test of competition on the other side of the big waters. We thus see not only the importance of protecting stock, but it is evident we are abundantly able to do it when wc set our heads in that direction. By 44 wintering cattle” I mean not only feeding, but in some measure at least protecting them from inclement weather. At the Far West where cattle are handled on a grand scale, it seems impracticable to furnish any pro-

tectioaovtaidetf a^vigwjq^oonatituthere, so far as protection is concerned, may be said to winter themselves. As we oome eastward we find the herds smaller, and copacqpcntly better taken larly there is sometLng of going on in the way of protecting cattle m winter. It was only the other day a dairyman was telling me of often, when a bor, having heard the creaking of the oows’ feet on the oold snow at night, as they moved about the stable-yard, to keep up the circulation. He also said that many a frosty morning he has made the cows get up, that he might warm his bare-feet where they had been lying. So it seems, in days gone by; the boys were not much better wintered than the oows. But even to this day in the best dairy districts it is simply amazing to see the utter neglect of shelter that is practiced by dairymen. The roughest shed will save, in the condition of the cows, a large percentage of feed, while full protection will allow the number of tne herd to he added to fully one-fourth ou a given quantity of feed. In the matter of what constitutes perfect shelter, doctors disagree. I nave seen the very best results m product of milk and health of cows, where * the thermometer in the stable was never allowed to go below sixty degrees in the coldest weather, and the air in the stable was saturated with the smell of manure—there being a total absence of ventilation. This may not be the most profitable temperature for handling cows, but the dairymen who did so, made fortunes. There is one thing certain, however, in relation to the correct temperature of cow stables, the air should never be allowed to fall below the freezing point, if a profit is expected from the milk yield. A cold cow is about as useful for making milk as a frozen pnmp. Young stock require protection with a view to their future usefulness. If they are for beef, then the better the protection the greater the profit from the returns. Ii they are intended for the dairy a little hardening will not hurt them. “Roughing it’” detracts from the fattening tendency, and thereby makes a more profitable milk producer. Feeding and watering are correlative principles with shelter; and in wintering animals they should be treated in respect to one of these practices as they are in the other. The ultimate purposes for which the beasts are intended should govern their treatment, for just as they are wintered will be their future development.— L. 8. Hardin, in Rural New Yorker. —The South raised twelve millions pounds more of tobacco the present season than ever before. And here are two or three million tobacco users who have taken a solemn vow to quit the nse of the weed forever after January 1. Oh, why can't they give the South a chancer —Chicago Times.