152 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



care and treatment of the cow have more to do with this one 

 thing than we reahze. 



Consider for a moment a herd of ten cows in a tie-up, on the 

 south side of a barn, that has a space of three feet at the rear 

 of the animals, where we may walk. There is a hanging shea 

 on the south side of this barn also, to preserve the manure pile 

 and keep out the sunlight, and the dressing is piled up to the 

 windows on the outside, making the walls damp. Then come 

 to this barn after the proprietor has awakened, and we find he 

 has provided other means for preserving the manure (and 

 should not the dairyman consider a little more, the value of this 

 by-product?) He has built a shed at one end of the tie-up out- 

 side the barn and connected with it only by a walk, then he 

 wheels the dressing into this shed or has it conveyed there some 

 way. He also has made walls to this hanging shed, put a floor in 

 it, and knocked out the side of the barn. He now has a roomv 

 tie-up with plenty of sunlight and air if he has properly venti- 

 lated it, which is a very easy thing to do. The former condi- 

 tions exist today with many of our dairymen. Some of them 

 have awakened. Many however are still asleep; How can we 

 awaken them? 



I believe that cow barns, if well built, are never too cold in 

 winter; and yet cold weather uses up fat of some kind, let us 

 not forget this. Is it not easier to keep things warm in winter 

 than to keep them cool in summer? Think of this sometimes. 

 I know that people can and do sleep out of doors, even in as 

 cold weather as we have had thus far this fall, and feel better 

 for it. This I know from experience. Every shiver of the 

 cow shakes money out of the owner's pockets, and we can and 

 must keep them from shivering. Why give them ice water to 

 drink, which some do even in the coldest weather? I don't 

 believe they take the trouble to in the summer time. Why 

 blanket the horse in cold weather and let the cow go without, 

 except perhaps a few days in hot weather when she is on exhi- 

 bition at the fair and must look slick? 



Much has already been said about the lack of interest in dairy- 

 ing. If one is interested in a thing, how easy it is to do it, how 

 it booms. It seems to me the thing for us to do when we go 

 home, those of us who have had the privilege of hearing and 

 learning so much here, is to give away what we have received. 



