294 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



The Swiss have not only two distinct breeds of the finest and most 

 economically valuable cattle in the world, but they probably surpass 

 every other people in the unwearying care and intelligent economy with 

 which their animals are housed, milked, and fed. 



Whether the farmer of the lowlands lives in a village or upon his land 

 his dwelling and his stable are usually under the same roof. Great, 

 roomy, and homely, but picturesque, structures they are, those houses 

 and barns, covered by the same steep and projecting roof of red tiles, 

 under the spreading eaves of which are stored the wagons and other 

 farm machinery when out of use. That end of this building which 

 shelters the family may be of rood, with picturesque balconies and ex- 

 terior stairways; the upper part of the other half in which the hay is 

 stored is not unfrequently built of squared pine logs or clapbo^rded, 

 with large and frequent openings for ventilation of the hay, which is 

 cut and thrown in fresh and fragrant, often almost without curing, in 

 this rainy, cloudy climate, but the stable, that chief feature of the es- 

 tablishment, which underlies the hay-loft, is invariably built of stone, 

 its solid walls of masonry being often 2 feet in thickness and plastered 

 within and without. The heavy oaken stable-door fits into its casings 

 like the cork of a bottle ; the ceiling is as nearly air-tight as possible, 

 and one or two small openings through the thick wall admit only a 

 feeble glimmer of light to the dim interior. The floor is of plank or 

 stone with a sunken section through the middle to catch the wet and 

 waste, and heavy mangers or troughs along the sides receive the 

 food of the cattle. The stables, for the most part often cleansed and 

 kept with all practicable neatness, are almost entirely unventilated. 

 In such stalls, in a close, noisome atmosphere, the cows on most low- 

 land farms are kept day and night throughout the year except during 

 a few days in late September and October, when, after the last crop of 

 grass is mowed, the herd is turned out for a fortnight or two of grazing. 

 This practice, however, is by no means universal among the dairymen 

 of the valleys, many of whom never bring their cows out of the stable 

 from one year to another, except, perhaps, for a few moments, when they 

 are led to the adjacent trough to be watered. 



Whatever else he may believe the Swiss cattle-grower never forgets 

 that the prime requisites of economical dairying and meat growing are 

 warmth, quiet, good, plentiful food, and fresh water for the animals, 

 for warmth saves food. 



A cow housed in a close, warm, dark stable wastes none of the fat or 

 milk-producing elements of her food in needless exertion. She is pro- 

 tected from flies, from the goring and annoyance of other cattle, from 

 the hot sun of noon and the chills of rain and dews as well as from the 

 sudden flaws of bleak wind which even in midsummer blow at times 

 from' the snow-clad slopes of the higher Alps. 



There are, of course, throughout the whole mountain region of Switz- 

 erland high valleys and steep pastures to which the cattle are driven in 

 May or June and graze until the end of the brief summer. But even 

 there the same zealous and intelligent care is taken to protect the animals 

 from every contingency of weather. The chalets on the lofty meadows, 

 which look so picturesque from the valleys below, are, for the most part> 

 cow-houses built of squared logs or planks carefully chinked with clay 

 or moss, and constructed, like the barns for winter, in the most careful 

 and substantial manner. I have counted nine layers or thicknesses of 

 shaved pine shingles in the roofs of these chalets, so carefully are they 

 constructed to exclude the damp and cold. There is often a fireplace 

 between the stalls at the end opposite tiie door, and there the mountain 



