154 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



animal cannot be expected to do her best. It is easy to arrange 

 comfortable ties, mangers, floors and other fixtures and all of them 

 return a good rate of interest on the cost through the benefits that 

 come from peace and contentment of the cow. 



Fifth- Clfanlinkss. The great struggle for the milk producer in 

 these days, and it is a struggle that will become stronger in the fu- 

 ture, is to keep the number of bacteria in the milk within the nar- 

 rowest limits that are possible. Jn this effort, many things are done 

 that increase the wholesomeness of the stable. By keeping down 

 the bacteria bearing dust, the germs of disease are at the same time 

 repressed. Conditions that are most favorable to health are least 

 favorable for bacteria. Briefly, some of these conditions are: The 

 absence of rough surfaces, deep recesses, cobwebs and the like that 

 harbor dirt and bacteria; water-tight floors and gutters; good 

 drainage; careful and complete removal of manure, etc. 



During recent years it has become the habit of many sanitarians 

 to refer to the germ diseases as filthy diseases. Much can be said in 

 favor of this phraseology. The germ diseases find the conditions 

 best suited for their spread and development in dirty places. If 

 cleanliness is not next to godliness it is at least next to wholesome- 

 ness. The value of good sanitary construction as opposed to the 

 old stabling conditions has been clearly and forcibly shown by the 

 experiments, previously described, carried out by the State Live 

 Stock Sanitary Board. By these experiments it is shown that good 

 air, light and cleanliness are important and powerful factors in 

 checking the progress of tuberculosis and in promoting bodily vigor. 



If any one has the opinion that good stables are necessarily ex- 

 pensive stables, he should disabuse his mind of this false idea. The 

 difference between good, wholesome stables and stables that promote 

 rather than prevent disease is not so much in cost as in an apprecia- 

 tion by the builder of the value of light, air, comfort and cleanli- 

 ness. 



THE SOIL OUR PARTNER. 



By Hon. ALVA AGEE. Cheshire. Ohio. 



There are few sorrier spectacles than the man who, owning a 

 portion of the tillable land of the earth, and dependent upon it for 

 income, looks upon the soil as a lifeless thing and upon farming as 



