American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian HomesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Home economics
_Shelter_ in winter is most important for cows. They should have
good tight stables or byres, well ventilated, and so warm that water
in a pail will only freeze a little on the top the severest nights.
Oxen should have the same stabling, though they bear cold better.
Horses in stables will bear almost any degree of cold, if they have
all they can eat. Sheep, except young lambs, are well enough sheltered
in dry sheds, with one end open. Cattle, sheep, and dogs do not sweat
as horses do, they "loll;" that is, water or slobber runs from their
tongues; hence, they are not liable to take cold as the horse is. Hogs
bear cold pretty well; but they eat enough to convince any one that
true economy lies in giving them warm sties in winter, for the colder
they are the more they eat. Fowls will not lay in cold weather unless
they have light and warm quarters.
_Cleanliness_ is indispensable, if one would keep his animals healthy.
In their wild state all our domestic animals are very clean, and, at the
same time, very healthy. The hog is not naturally a dirty animal, but
quite the reverse. He enjoys currying as much as a horse or a cow, and
would be as careful of his litter as a cat if he had a fair chance.
Horses ought to be groomed daily; cows and oxen as often as twice a
week; dogs should be washed with soapsuds frequently. Stables should be
cleaned out daily. Absorbents of liquid in stables should be removed as
often as they become wet. Dry earth is one of the best absorbents, and
is especially useful in the fowl-house. Hogs in pens should have straw
for their rests or lairs, and it should be often renewed.
_Parasitic Vermin_.--These are lice, fleas, ticks, the scale insects,
and other pests which afflict our live stock. There are many ways of
destroying them; the best and safest is a free use of _carbolic acid
soap_. The larger animals, as well as hogs, dogs, and sheep may be
washed in strong suds of this soap, without fear, and the application
repeated after a week. This generally destroys both the creatures and
their eggs. Hen lice are best destroyed by greasing the fowls, and
dusting them with flowers of sulphur. Sitting hens must never be
greased, but the sulphur may be dusted freely in their nests,
and it is well to put it in all hens' nests.
_Salt and Water_.--All animals except poultry require salt, and all,
free supplies of fresh water.
_Light_.--Stables, or places where any kind of animals are confined,
should have plenty of light. Windows are not more important in a house
than in a barn. The _sun_ should come in freely; and if it shines
directly upon the stock, all the better. When beeves and sheep are
fattening very rapidly, the exclusion of the light makes them more
quiet, and fatten faster; but their state is an unnatural and hardly a
healthy one.
_Exercise_ in the open air is important for breeding animals. It
is especially necessary for horses of all kinds. Cows need very little
and swine none, unless kept for breeding.
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