The wisest man has said that “the righteous man regardeth the life of
his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” If any one
is at a loss to know the meaning of the latter part, he cannot have
made good use of his eyes. Lean cattle, leaner horses, anatomical
specimens of cows, half fed, dirty, drenched by every rain, and
pierced by every-winter wind, these are an excellent comment on the
passage.
It is time for every merciful man to make provision for every dumb
animal which is dependent upon him.
_Cows_ should be provided with a comfortable stable at night. No
feeding will be a substitute for good shelter. Both the quantity and
quality of the milk will depend upon bodily comfort in respect to
warmth and nutritious food. Such as are becoming heavy with calf
should be specially cared for. Many farmers let their cows shift for
themselves as soon as their milk dries away. But the health of the
coming calf and the ability of the cow to supply it, and her owner,
copiously with milk depend on the condition in which she is kept
during the period of gestation.
_Cattle_ should have a good shed provided for them, under which they
may be dry and sheltered from winds. It is the curse of western
farming that cattle and fodder are so plenty that it is hardly a loss
to waste both.
Where the amount of stock is too great for comfortable home-quarters,
and they are wintered in a stock field, there should be places of
resort for them, so high as to remain dry, well turfed with
blue-grass, and sheltered with cheap sheds, or by belts of forest.
_Sheep_ should receive special attention. They abhor wet. They should
be permitted to keep their fleece dry, and to eat their food in a dry
stable. The flock should be sorted. The bucks and wethers by
themselves, the ewes by themselves; lambs and weak sheep in another
division; and a fourth compartment should never be wanting for the
sick, where they may be nursed and medically treated.
_Horses_ are more apt to be taken care of than cattle. But even they
are often more indebted for existence to a stubborn tenacity of life,
than to the care of their keepers. The horse is a more dainty feeder
than ruminating animals. He should be supplied with a better article
of hay: his grain should never be dirty or musty.
Hardy farm-horses may even rough out the winter without blanketing or
any other care than is necessary to supply good food and enough of
it. But carriage horses, and those highly prized for the
saddle—aristocratic horses—should be more carefully groomed. It is not
wise to blanket a horse at all, unless it can be _always_ done. If he
is liable to change hands; to be off on journeys under circumstances
in which he cannot be blanketed at night, it will be better not to
begin it.
Winter is a good time to kill off spirited horses. They are easily run
down by a smashing sleigh-ride pace. Boys and girls, buzzing in a
double sleigh like a hive of bees, think that the horses enjoy
themselves, at the exhilarating pace of six or eight miles an hour, as
much as _they_ do. But this is not ordinarily the worst of it. The
horse stands out, after a trip of ten or fifteen miles, at a post for
an hour or two until thoroughly chilled; then home he races, and goes
into the stable, steaming with sweat, to stand without blankets all
night. Horses catch cold as much as men do. And a horse-cold is just
as bad as a human cold. As there has been some difficulty, in the
construction of fanning mills, to gain a strong enough current of
wind, we would advise the builders of them to study the construction
of a good stable.