396 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



coverable loss and the amount cannot be estimated. It may result 

 from many causes. The stable may be good and the food and care 

 lacking, or the individuals may not be of good selection or kind; but 

 be that as it may the first essential to any herd is a good house to 

 live in — one that will protect its inmates from the objectionable 

 features of the elements and yet allow them to enjoy and be bene- 

 fitted by conditions of weather and atmosphere as are conducive to 

 good health and vigor, then if the food and treatment is right they 

 will be comfortable and profitable machines. 



Now by so constructing a cow barn as to remove the many very 

 objectionable features so often seen — such as darkness, the lack of 

 sufficient ventilation, ceilings hanging with hay and cobwebs loaded 

 with dust, uneven floors containing numerous pools of urine and 

 soakage befouling the occupant and penetrating the soil so as to 

 constantly give off strong odorous gases, keeping the air unfit for the 

 contact with milk and should not be breathed by the inmates, the 

 bulky troughs, stalls and racks obstructing light and free change of 

 air and favoring the collection of dust and dirt in the many dark 

 corners in their construction — we will reduce the running expense, 

 because each and every one of the features mentioned is a handicap 

 directly in opposition to the natural surroundings and needful con- 

 ditions of our domestic animals. How can this best be done? If a 

 new stable or barn is to be built the question is easily answered; but 

 the best way to renovate and reconstruct our old bank barns is the 

 question that confronts the greatest number. 



In the days of our grandfathers, when cattle feeding was the 

 principle industry of the eastern farmer, the bank barn with its dark 

 basement probably answered a very good purpose, but the dairy 

 cow and her perishable products demand entirely different environ- 

 ments. The first and most important correction of such a barn is 

 the introduction of light, and plenty of it. This oft times reveals 

 very disgusting conditions previously unnoticed which serve as a 

 stimulant to better conditions. Windows should be placed in all 

 sides of the barn. If the banks interfere with putting them in the 

 wall they can be placed above the wall in the weatherboarding, with 

 a sloping chute cutting off" a small corner of the hay mow, allowing 

 the light to strike the floor at a point much further toward the 

 centre of the cellar than the light that enters through a window 

 iu the wall near the floor. The windows should be as large as space 

 will admit of and not be constructed with frame work to protect the 

 glass from breakage; they should be hung on hingvs so as to open 

 readily to aid in ventilation. The light is insufficient if a newfvpaper 

 cannot be read Avith ease in any part of such a stable. 



Now we can see the work of ages represented by so many long 

 y(=ars of innocent toil of the industrious little spider, who so loves to 



