Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1877 — Leaks in the Barn. [ARTICLE]

Leaks in the Barn.

Here and there may be seen stables and barns trith broken-windows, loose boards, holes in the roofs, or doors and windows that gape open, and refuse to shut closely. Through these openings the cold air and rain will leak in, and the warm air will leak out. Such leaks as-these are disagreeable to see, and are uncomfortable to the occupants of the buildings. But these are by no means the whole of the affair. The worst of it ts, that through these leaks the farmer’s profits dvswppear, very silently, it is true, but not the less steadily and constantly. While his cattle stand and shiver in the cool, sharp nights, or steam under the penetrating rain-storms or snow, with every shiver there disappears a quantity of the fodder from tne barn, as well as some of the milk from the cows, some fat from the steers and the pigs, some wool from the sheep, and some eggs from the poultry. The farmer looks and wonders. He complains that the cows arc rough, that “ there is no good in the feed;” that the pigs do not fatten as fast as they should, that there are no eggs, and the .liens are eating their heads off. Well, an animal cannot use lip all its food in keeping warm, and at the same time make milk, fat, wool or eggs. These are made from food, and from only the surplus of the food, after the bodily wants and needs are supplied. "In the Polar regions, a man needs six pounds of fat meat, and the same of bread, for his daily meals, while an East Indian neods but a pound of rice for a day’s subsistence. When working in the northern woods in the depths of winter, with the thermometer far below zero for weeks at a time, the lumberer eats with relish huge himps of clearfat pork, with his daily two pounds of bread and liberal messes of bean soup; food of thjs kind would sicken a man, were he to look at it, in the harvestfield. Ail this food goes to mako up the waste of heat from the body during the excessive cold. It is precisely so in the barn, or in the pig-pen. If these are kept so warm that water will never freeze in them, much less food is needed by the animals than if the air is far below a freezing temperature ; ami if the temnoraturp is comfortably warm, less fooa still will be required. So wherever a stream of cold air, snow or rain pours in upon the cattle, or when they* are miserable and uncomfortable,

a stream of wasted food pours out all the time through the leak. Now is the time to stop these leaks. A board here and there ; a good glazed window In plaoo of a broken shutter; warm, dry litter in plaoo of a foul, wet bed ; a tight roof and a plastered or doubleboarded ceiling, all theso are actually worth more tnan an extra portion of food to an animal, because, although when cold and chilled it eats the more, vet it thrives poorly, while if well housed it will keep sleek and thrifty upon comparatively moderate feeding.