DAIRY CATTLE AND THE DAIRY FARM 135 



boards and depressions where the broom did not reach; in the remainder 

 it was due to carelessness on the part of the proprietor. In 23 per cent, 

 of the wood floor stables flies were breeding under the floors and this 

 figure is low as about one-half of the stables inspected were of such 

 construction that flies might breed beneath the floors but precluded 

 determination of whether they were doing so or not. Two factors lead 

 to the breeding of flies under the wooden floors. First, in some stables 

 the floors were not tight and so permitted urine and particles of fly- 

 blown manure to fall beneath the floor where the warmth and moisture 

 were favorable to larval development. Second, in stables of this sort 

 having loose foundations flies will oviposit in suitable material that they 

 find beneath the barns. 



Larvae were found in many manure heaps but often the manure had 

 been hauled away a short while before inspection so that in this particular 

 the percentage of positive findings, 38 per cent, of all the stables, was 

 low. 



Mosquitos. Mosquitos, like flies, greatly annoy cattle and the writer 

 has seen invasions of dairy districts by certain varieties of salt marsh 

 mosquitos that were really disturbing but speaking broadly it is unusual 

 for mosquitos to trouble herds greatly. To the farmers themselves 

 they may do serious injury for anopheles mosquitos, infected with malaria 

 transmit the disease to man causing him to be sickly and listless, conse- 

 quently his business suffers. To avoid such misfortune and to prevent 

 the family from being pestered by the ordinary house mosquito, culex, 

 rain barrels and cisterns should be kept tightly covered that mosquitos 

 cannot enter them to lay their eggs. There should be good drainage 

 about the house and barn, for in puddles that are permanent enough to 

 last 10 days the insects will mature. Pools around manure heaps, cess- 

 pools and the water that accumulates in privy vaults, also make prolific 

 breeding places. Sagging gutters likewise furnish their quota of mos- 

 quitos. Places that cannot be drained can be rendered unfit for breeding 

 by spraying them with oil. 



Milk Houses. Besides barns, milk houses are required on dairy farms 

 and ice houses are so useful as to be almost a necessity. 



Milk or dairy houses vary a great deal in type because they must 

 be suited to the character of the dairyman's business; when the milk is 

 shipped in bulk a very simple structure suffices but where a producer car- 

 ries on a retail business a more elaborate building is required. The pur- 

 pose of a milk house is to afford a place to which the milk may be carried 

 as soon as it is drawn from the cow and in which it may be cooled, made 

 ready for shipment or delivery, and be stored. Milk houses are some- 

 times in the dairyman's dwelling or occasionally in one end of his ice house, 

 more often in or attached to the barn but are usually in a separate build- 

 ing a short distance from the barn. Of these situations the least favorable 



