Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1869 — Profit of Shelter for Animals. [ARTICLE]

Profit of Shelter for Animals.

A cotttridcration for the phys- , ical Comfort, of tin hauls should be a .sufficient inducement for , sci so p rovidfe for then! a good pr otectlon agalni*t the in cl cm on • ies of the weather; but as this argument alone will have no «4f\ct with some im-n, we will endeavor to demonstrate that money may be saved to a great extent by keeping them in . worm 6ialden. : , The best tell us that the stomach of a man or animal is a sort of furnace or Move, the food eafen is fuel, and its digestion, decomposition, and assimilation a species of combustion. It has also been demonstrated, by carefully conducte<! experiments, that the amount of heat generat* d in tjie (•-animation of wood or coal is okactly in proportion to the gjrpuuitUy of fuel consumed.

We know that, if a be shut up for fattening in Septem- ' her, and fed five pounds of cornmeal well cooked, it will gain in weight one pound per day * for the five ponnd# of meal; but if kept until Deceftibef in a cold pen, although it will eat as much, it will not increase half ' as much in weight —the balance I Httinj* required to keep up the of the pig. bet a man of sedentary habits ride two or three hours in a cool, dry atmosphere and bracing ■ wind; lie returns invigorated, w ith a sharpened appetite, and will cat tVice r.s much dinner as usual. Ills exercise and exposure to a cooling atmosphere Imvv burnt t ut and exhausted ijlfe breakfast; and that ever present monitor, the stomach, with unerring instinct, calls for inore food, or fuel, as the propor remedy to supply the wants of the system, and keep up the To mautain the body in of health, it must be kept at a temperature of 100 degrees, which is done by an ample supply of food and good digestion. If the latter be good and f!*e former in excess,, the animal will fatten, while if the food is deficient the fat already stomLup in .the animal tissues, w ill be transmitted to the stumwell first, and then eoitsunted fi'iUtT existing necessities of keeping up the temperature; thus the animal grows poor in flesh. .

A depression of only a few «logrees is speedily followed by death. Thus in the victim of some forma of cholera, when attacked by the poisonous miasma. nutrition ceases, the copious evacuations rapidly depress the temperature, and alit may be in mid sum-1 mer. the patient actually dies tcom cold, . Hence the value of a prompt administration of ♦ffiniuleuts and tonics, and the success of »4tnpiric who in a woolen manufactory cured his patients by surrounding them with hot fleeces of _wool and giving thorn nourishment anil stimulants in hot drinks. A horse weighing 1000 pounds performing no labor, or a cow of equal weight giving no milk’, in a mean temperature of 50 degrees, will mnntain a normal temperature of 100 degrees by being fed 25 pounds of good hay every *24 hours, and will neither fatten nor become thin. This is about one pound per hour required to raise |OOO pounds of animal heat 50 degrees. Now, supposing the outdoor.teraperature to be as low as 20 degrees, and we ttfc-aias the same weight of animal 80 degrees, instead of 50 degrees, in the same proportion as in a wood fire (and there, is no dopbt of the analogy of the • t&tfes) Would require 40 pounds at hhy-every day to keep the irqm growing poor. • Bat there is anbther reason why Animals should be shelter-j ed—thf| p( evaporation from j Moisten the bulb

of a thermometer And expose it to the wind, And it will fall from 3 to 10 degrees. Moisten your finger ami-expoac it the same wav, and you wttt instantly, leeTa sensation of cold, due to evaporation from the surface. The skin of every animal in good health is always moist, aiul the evap->rnt ion ccmsecjuent upon exposure to bleak winds mus-t of necessity greatly depress the animal hifikt, and recpiire a correspond of food to restore it, Of this much we nvar be sure, that food is fuel, and the colder the animal is kept, the more food he will require. It is much to be desired that some one having proper conveniences should try careful experimen-s, and determine positively the proportion and relations as liuou to temperature and growth. livery observing man admits the truth of the principle, but can only partially estimate its extent.

Si ate Maxi;m.so .—The best ftnglish farmers concede that, in very few cases, manure acts better fur. being plowed in. In case of long, that is. strawy manure, it must be covered,that it may- decay, and when yard-manure has-notbeen Composted, as it should be, the ammonia will escape unless it is covered ~ with earth. The reason whp top-dressing is best can easily be understood- No manure can act on tin 1 roots of growing crops till it is dissolved; When dissolved, the water hold lug plant food in solution should be brought in contact with the greatest number of roots. When the water thus charged pusses !by gravity through a foot of soil, from the surface downward, it vista a greater number of rootlets than when it passes down from a depth of four or five inches below the surface. Millions of acres of grass-land Mlave been broken up simply for the sake of enriching,the field witli manures. , t \ll this is misapplied toil. Meadows can be brought up by top-dressing just.as effectively, and at much less cost.

Hints for C'oi i* Weather; —ln feeding farm animals, re member that when you place food before an animal, it is eaten for three purposes: to give muscular strength, t.q supply heat, or to make fat or butter. The more avow consumes to supply muscular waste, the less goes to milk. The more she needs to keep herself warm, the less she can yield of milk prof flesh. Hoarse, rough food, as swnm.p hay, buts of conu stalks, and straw yield —some starch or carbon. .This is the | reason why an animal in an [open shed will eat trash which it would reject in a warm stable. Yet there is nothing gained by starving them.to rough fodder. Good sliclterjwould be cheaper.; The fie her the food in a! burnt n j the more vigor and muscle it i will make. The farmer gains! more by a 1 few high-fed animals - than much hdf-stai ved, illhoused stock.

Mvcit Horses Should Draw.— Teams are sometimes permanently injured by overloading, in consequence of an ignorance of the quantity of some new material to make a tun. Every person, or at least every owner of a team,, should therefore acquaint himslf with the relative weights .of different materials. With straw no one need have, .any fear, and hay is next—a load of timothy twelve’ feet feet high, well packed, weighs about a ton, or about 500 cubic feet iu a solid stack or mow. Four and a half cubic feet of iron weighs the same, and a wagon box ten feet long and three feet wide should therefore he filled only two inches to make over a ton. Sand may be put in the Same wagon bed to the depth of thn inches, loose gravel ele.ye'n inches, and brick about nine inches ‘ f 4 - Adaptation of Manure to Crops. —lt bus been shown by theory, and proved by practice, that. well-fermented manure should be employed for quickly 1 growing crops, and that which is fresh or unfermented to those that grow slowly^