172 



VETERINARY HYGIENE 



of the building, from which point a cross drain will carry the urine 



out of the building. Unless really necessary, which rarely will be 



found to be the case, the drain should run without interruption 



from one end of the byre to the other. 



Milking Passage. The milking and cleaning passage behind the 



cows must be of 



ample width for several 



reasons. If the cubic -^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



air-space is to approach 



what we consider to be 



the minimum allowance, 



and that without having 



an inordinately high 



building, the passage 



for a single byre must 



be 9 feet wide. This 



width with stalls 7 feet 



6 inches long and a 



dung channel 2 feet 



wide will give an inside width to the building of 18 feet 6 inches. 



It is at once admitted that this width is in excess of that usually 



provided, but unless the air-space is to be less than what is required 



a narrower passage will not serve. A wide passage gives more 



freedom to cows entering and leaving the byre and it prevents 



the splashing of the wall with dung and urine which is so common 



and so unsightly in narrow buildings. The passage must be laid 



with a fall of 1 inch from the wall to the channel. 



Air-Space. If the height of the walls is 12 feet and the roof 



height 6 feet from eaves to 

 ridge, the gross cubic air- 

 space of a single byre having 

 the above dimensions will be 

 970 cubic feet. From this 

 must be deducted 20 cubic 

 feet for the space occupied by 

 each cow, so that the net 



FIG. 75. View of a double cow-stall fitted with 

 individual food-troughs and a continuous 

 hay rack. The stall partitions are of cement 

 concrete. 



FIG. 76. Cement concrete continuous food- 

 trough for cows. 



cubic air-space per animal 

 will be approximately 950 

 cubic feet. Though a net 

 air-space of 950 cubic feet is really less than what is desirable for 

 large cows it is probably as much as can be expected owing to the 

 high cost of building. 



The Floor-Space of such a byre is 65 square feet per animal, 



