228 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



the top of a room. So that unless there be apertures below, we do not insure a proper cir- 

 culation of air by merely having open windows. In a paper recently communicated to the 

 Highland (Scotch) Agricultural Society by Mr. Barlow, that gentleman recommended each 

 stall to be ventilated separately. He advised a hole or holes facing the head, level with the 

 floor, and another aperture near the stable-ceiling. The pure air would enter below and be 

 inspired ; the hot impure air would ascend and pass out above. This plan is not new ; it was 

 recommended by the late Professor Coleman of London, and has been found exceedingly suc- 

 cessful when practically applied. The holes can have slides or plugs of wood so arranged as 

 to graduate the amount of admitted air to the utmost nicety. In hot weather, they may be 

 wide open ; in cool weather, they may be partially, and perhaps sometimes almost completely, 

 closed. "VVe are convinced of the fact that a due supply of pure air, be it warm or cool, is 

 the great security against diseases of the respiratory organs in stabled horses. Supplying 

 plenty of good air in the stable places horses in-doors as near on an equality as possible with 

 those at pasture, and by doing so lessens the tendency to disease. When stables or other 

 buildings for farm-stock are ventilated only by doors and windows, it frequently happens that 

 the cold wind comes in so freely as to chill the horses standing near. This renders it need- 

 ful to shut the windows or doors altogether, and the consequence is, a rapidly-poisoned atmo- 

 sphere, that fruitful cause of coughs, colds, and chest diseases in general. On the other hand, 

 when each stall is as it were separately ventilated, the apertures are individually small, and 

 may be so managed as to prevent all draught. If we are asked, then, to state the best pre- 

 ventive of disease of the respiratory organs in stabled horses, we have merely to advise the 

 admission of cool, proper breathing air before and below the horse's nose, and the exit of 

 heated impure air by an aperture placed at a higher level. Every horse and every man is 

 continually exhaling a poisonous gas, and common sense itself would indicate the importance 

 of getting rid of this in the speediest manner possible. North British Agriculturist. 



The following remarks on the ventilation of cow-houses and stables are derived from 'a paper 

 on this subject read before the Hexam Farmers' Club, England, by James Ferguson, Esq. : 



A feeding byre or cow-house for one row of cattle when tied up, should not be less in width 

 than 18 feet within the falls, including a passage at their heads for feeding 3 feet wide. 

 The side walls should not be less than 10 feet in height above the floor, and ought to be made 

 smooth with one coat of good plaster, and once at least each year should be carefully washed 

 with hot lime, which makes the atmosphere in the building sweet and healthy for the cattle 

 confined in it. A stable ought to be in every respect (except a passage at the head of the 

 horses, which is unusual) of the same size, and above neither cow-house nor stable ought 

 there to be, on any account, any loft or ceiling whatever, but open entirely to the roof, which 

 should be slated on sarking-boards, and of the usual pitch. The walls, of course, of the 

 stables ought also to have one coat of plaster, and be carefully lime-washed at least once, if 

 not twice, each year. 



Now, in order that such houses may be properly ventilated, that stock may be kept in them 

 in a perfectly healthy state, ventilators, which may be made three feet long by two feet 

 wide, should be placed on the apex or highest part of the roof, for the reason that impure 

 or vitiated air in the building, being heated and consequently lighter than the cold air, always 

 rises upwards and vertically, (provided fresh air in sufficient quantity is admitted below,} and 

 flies off by any aperture in a line above it which may facilitate its escape, and therefore 

 out of reach of respiration. But in thus affording means for the escape of the foul air at the 

 proper place, we must not lose sight of the absolute necessity of obtaining fresh supplies of 

 pure air, which should always be admitted into a building at a low level, for the very purpose 

 of lifting or pressing upwards the impure air which will not ascend otherwise ; for exactly 

 in proportion as the cold air is admitted below, the vitiated air which has been rendered use- 

 less by frequent respiration will be expelled or forced upwards ; and it therefore follows that an 

 opening in the highest part of the roof should be made to allow its egress, and that that open- 

 ing should be formed in such a manner that direct currents of cold air may not obstruct its 

 upward tendency. I must not omit, however, to notice, that if the dung and urine of cattle 

 are not carefully removed every morning, and the channels behind them well flushed out with 

 water, as before observed, in vain may the farmer look for healthy stock, however suitable 



