I38. AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



their drawing. They are forty-five feet long, and because of 

 their length and size they have strong drafts and displace large 

 volumes of the impure air and discharge it out of doors. 



The tie-up is not shut off from the large feeding floor which 

 opens into the cupolas except in severe weather, and then depend- 

 ence is had upon the ventilating shutes alone, and they do their 

 work well. Upon entering the closed tie-up in the early morning 

 the air is not clamp or heavy with odors. Many a morning I 

 have climbed up to the cupolas at the top of the shafts to see how 

 the thing was working, and whenever my nose went over the edge 

 of the shutes the currents that assailed me were strong and con- 

 vincing. Nothing could be more so. We need not worry about 

 the supply of fresh air ; enough will enter the tie-up through the 

 little openings that we will not close, build as well as we may, 

 to create draft and supply pure air. It is the same system of 

 ventilation that our fathers put into their houses when they built 

 their big brick chimney and open fireplaces. It is the system 

 which we abandoned when we adopted stoves and steam heat. 

 In the old times the heifers were cold blooded and did not mature 

 for early breeding. Comfortable housing and generous feeding 

 have made them warm blooded and precocious. We have mis- 

 taken their ability and willingness to breed early as an indication 

 of maturity, and have caused them to become mothers when but 

 two years or less of age, when they are but little more than half 

 grown. Sometimes this may be advisable with fleshy heifers, 

 but with well bred ones it is rarely so, and should be rigidly 

 discouraged as one of the evil practices that produces undersized 

 cows with low vitality. 



The cow has been a co-worker with man ever since he took her 

 from a state of nature and molded her to suit his own purposes. 

 In her wild state she cared for herself in the wilderness and 

 shunned man as her enemy. In domestication she had become 

 an artificial creature, helpless of herself, but helpful to man, her 

 master, friend and co-worker. Under the guidance of the skilled 

 man, she is the factor more than any other, that is bringing back 

 a prosperous and hopeful agriculture to the worn soils of the 

 East. Through her agencies more intensive husbandry will be 

 practiced in the future, because her products sell for more in 

 proportion to their food cost than do those from any other class 

 of animals. Through her is made practicable, for the farmer's 



