780 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



gether, admitting all possible light and sunshine. Light and sun- 

 shine are death to germs. 



As for ventilation, perhaps the King system, properly installed, 

 is best. This system is simple and consists of fresh air intakes 

 at the ceiling of the barn and foul air outlets at the floor. The 

 outlets extend from the floor to the cupola of the barn and should 

 be lined with tarred felt or paper to make them air tight. The 

 principle on which the King system operates is that foul air is 

 heavier by 15 per cent than fresh air and settles to the floor and 

 is conveyed from the barn through the outlets on a level with the 

 floor as the fresh air enters the intake flues. Another plan which 

 promises to be successful is to use the same outlets for foul air 

 and insert muslin instead of glass in a number of the windows. 

 Still another plan which seems to be very efficient is to have in- 

 takes in the side of the barn or windows and have the outlet shaft 

 reach nearly to the floor, the lower part being either of canvas or so 

 constructed as to telescope and thus raise or lower. 



SANITARY CONDITIONS. 



Because in the dairy barn feed for human consumption is being 

 produced and because milk readily takes up impurities, it is very 

 important that sanitary conditions and methods prevail in ana 

 about the barn. The public is beginning to realize that there is 

 a great difference between pure and impure milk, and many cities are 

 fighting persistently against the sale of impure milk. 



Considering these facts it becomes at once apparent that it is 

 to the dairyman's advantage to produce a pure, wholesome com- 

 modity, and to do this his barns, cows and attendants must be 

 clean. All floors, feed mangers and gutters should be of cement 

 and kept scrupulously clean. Gutters, furnished with drains for 

 conducting liquid manure to a cess pool, should be built behind the 

 cows. The cows themselves need daily grooming and udders, 

 teats and flanks should be sponged off before each milking. Milk- 

 ers and every one who handles milk must be clean. White 

 laundried suits worn while milking and caring for the milk will 

 be a great source of cleanliness. The milk room should at least be 

 separated from the barn by a corridor to prevent odors from enter- 

 ing it. It should have cement floor and walls that can be easily 

 kept clean by washing. Plastered walls are unsatisfactory as 

 steam and moisture and jar of machinery cause plaster to crack 

 and fall. Whitewashing the interior of the barn at frequent in- 

 tervals serves not only to make the barn lighter but also destroys 

 many germs. It may be said in this connection that the fewer 

 and simpler the furnishings and equipment in the barn the easier 

 it is to keep clean. For this reason gas pipe partitions in stalls 

 and swinging iron stanchions hung in gas pipe frames are much 

 superior to complicated patent stalls; and, too, they are more com- 

 fortable for the cow and keep her cleaner, points well worth con- 

 sidering. The same sanitary conditions are worth observing in 

 the calf pens because dirty surroundings are directly accountable 

 for many of the troubles experienced from calf scours. 



