514 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [July 2, 1920. 



Site and Aspect as Factors in Healthy Housing. 



A very considerable proportion of disease and mortality can be more or 

 less directly traced to errors in constructing the buildings in which animals 

 li\e all or part of their time. Although for each kind of animal different 

 considerations carry weight, yet there are certain principles common to the 

 proper construction of all buildings intended to house stock. These will be 

 considered first, and the diseases noted which to a greater or lesser degree 

 are associated with them. 



In selecting the site for stables, cow-sheds, and pig and calf pens some 

 freedom of choice is generally offered to the farmer. These structures 

 shoidd not be placed on low-lying swampy ground, or on ground liable to be 

 flooded, or they will always be damp and probably associated with chills and 

 rheumatism ; while the animals, having to expend so much of their food in 

 maintaining bodily warmth, will not thrive so well as those in drier and 

 better situated buildings. 



Buildings are better on higher land, which can more readily be drained. 

 It is also desirable to take into considei^ation the dryness of the soil, A 

 shallow soil with a clay subsoil, for example, is not the most suitable, and 

 alluvial flats and "made soils" are unsuitable places on which to place 

 buildings for stock. 



This is often important — partly in relation to its effect on the health of 

 stock and partly because it affects the comfort, not only of the animals, but 

 of those working among them. Whenever possible, in most parts of this 

 State, a southerly or westerly aspect should be avoided, and shelter from the 

 south and west secured. Despite the great heat of summer in many parts 

 of the State, more loss is certainly occasioned by the cold of winter, and any- 

 thing in the housing of stock that tends to protect them from southerly and 

 westerly winds is of advantage. Continued exposure to cold westerlies 

 whpn the animals are confined in small pens which prevent them exercising 

 themselves will rapidly lower their vitality and disease-resisting power, 

 especially in the case of young stock, and will retard their development by 

 forcing them to devote so much of theii' food toward the maintenance of 

 body teniperature. In like manner the sudden changes of teinperature 

 which occur with southerly winds and winter storms are liable to produce 

 catarrh and pneumonia in all classes of stock exposed to them, particularly 

 when such exposure follows recent shearing or clippingj de-trucking after a 

 long railway journey, sudden release from close confintMiient in a hot 

 atmosphere, or over-lieating from some other cause. After sudden falls in 

 tonperature or cold rain, semi-starvation often leads to heavy losses. 

 Penned animals have no cliance of taking advantage of shelter afforded 

 by the ground and sufferaccordingly. 



The selection of an east, north-easterly, or northerly aspect has the further 

 .advantage of catching the morning sun in the winter and allowing sunlight 

 to enter freely into buildings all the year round. The top of a ridge is 

 never a good place for housing stock oi- placing cow-bails ; on such a site 

 the buildings are exposed to all the winds that blow. 



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