strial University will be held from
Tuesday, January 29th, to Friday, February 1, 1884. Four lectures will
be given each day, at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., by Dr.
Peabody, Regent of the University, Professors Burrill, Jillson,
McMurtrie, Morrow and others. The topics discussed will be:
_Soils_--Their Origin, Physical Characteristics, Chemical Composition,
Drainage, Cultivation, Fertilization; _Plants_--Their Structure, Growth,
Nutrition, Seeds, Movement of Sap, Development and Distribution,
Economic Products. Addresses will be given in the evenings by Dr.
Peabody, Governor Hamilton and others. These lectures and addresses are
given as a part of the work of the College of Agriculture of the
University. No fees or examinations are required. All interested are
cordially invited to attend.

THE COST OF COLD WINDS.

Prof. Shelton, of the Kansas Agricultural College, puts the question of
sheltering stock in an exceedingly pointed manner. He has lately been
feeding ten steers in an experimental way. He found that for the period
of ten days ending December 29, the average gain per head was thirty-one
and one-tenth pounds. The weather was warm and sunny. The steers were
fed in an unbattened board shed. During the succeeding ten days, when
the cold was intense almost the entire time, the same steers, fed on the
same rations, and in the same shed, gained but six and six-tenths pounds
per head. About a year ago the Professor fed a lot of pigs for three
weeks of the coldest weather, in open yards, and found them to consume
more than three times the amount of food to pound of increase than the
same number of pigs in the warm basement of the barn. He has a cow kept
in a bleak "Kansas barn" which shrinks in her milk from one-fourth to
one-half after twenty-four hours of very severe weather. From all this
the conclusion is what we have so often taught in these columns, though
not as forcibly as the Professor teaches by his careful experiments,
that you can not burn feed as fuel to support the body of an animal and
at the same time have the animal stow it away in the form of muscle and
fat. The fact is that our farmers throw away one-half their feed in
furnishing animal heat that they might just as well save by paying a
small lumber bill and expending a moderate amount of labor.

GOOD WORK AT WASHINGTON.

Surely the House of Representatives is getting down to solid work since
the holiday vacation. Mr. Holman