Buildings and Yards. 559 



height of the wall, and the extra height of floor is no inconvenience in 

 feeding. 



In general the freshest air in a stable is toward the outer walls. By- 

 standing animals toward the walls, they have opportunity to breathe 

 the freshest air and do not breathe into the faces of the row opposite. 

 This enables the cleaning out of the gutters on both sides at one time. 

 The sunlight strikes the feed troughs and thus helps to disinfect them. 

 On the other hand, the sunlight shines in the eyes of the animals, which 

 may not be desirable; while if they face toward the center the sunlight 

 bathes the backs of the animals and helps to disinfect the gutters. The 

 feeding is done rather more conveniently when animals face the center. 

 It must be remembered that the weight of manure removed is greater 

 than the weight of food consumed. Economy in handling manure is 

 probably more important than that of handling the food. It must, how- 

 ever, be admitted that the reasons for standing the animals either way 

 are so evenly balanced as to permit one to follow his personal 

 preference. 



Practice, and to some extent experiment, have demonstrated that 

 watering cattle, sheep and swine twice, and horses three times a day is 

 sufficient. Experiments have clearly shown that water at 50° to 60° F. 

 is as desirable as at any higher temperature. The idea sometimes expressed 

 that, since it is necessary to raise the water to the temperature of the 

 animal body it is cheaper to do it with coal than by the corn the animal 

 eats, is erroneous, because, when an animal drinks the cool water, some 

 of the heat which otherwise would have passed fron: the body will be 

 used in raising the temperature of the water to the body temperature. It 

 is this delicacy of mechanism which enables the animal in health to main- 

 tain an almost constant temperature. 



When water is placed in a room it will absorb the gases from the at- 

 mosphere. In addition to this, it is extremely difficult to prevent forage 

 and dust and dirt from finding lodgment in watering devices. Any water- 

 ing device to be used iii the stable should be such that it may be com- 

 pletely emptied and readily cleaned after cattle have been watered. When 

 cattle are turned into the feed lot, open shed or covered barnyard, a 

 water tank is to be preferred to most watering devices found in stables. 



When it is necessary to have a watering trough at a temperature 

 below freezing the best results will be secured when the trough or tank is 

 relatively large and only a small part is exposed when cattle are drinking. 

 All watering troughs should be provided with a waste pipe. The opening 

 to this waste should be closed with a hollow plug, the height of which 

 is less than the height of the trough. This will prevent the trough from 

 overflowing, an extremely unpleasant procedure in the water. 



