124 PROFITABLE DAIRYING 



addition to the room taken for the stanchion, fourteen 

 to sixteen inches for drop and eight feet for drive- 

 way between the drops, with similar room on the 

 opposite side for a double row of cows. Mangers 

 of box form that come to a level with the cows' 

 heads should be avoided. A box that comes to the 

 nose of the cow as she stands catches her breath 

 and makes her breathe the same air over and over 

 again, contaminates her food, and renders it unpala- 

 table, so that she will not eat it. When cows face 

 each other, with a narrow feeding-alley between, 

 and a high manger before each cow, the conditions 

 are highly unsanitary. The cow breathes not only 

 her own exhalation, but those of the others as well; 

 their heads are in the warmer atmosphere and the 

 bodies in the cooler conditions regarded as in- 

 jurious to health. 



In the barn being described the feeding-alley 

 floors are ten inches above the level of the cow 

 platform and feeding-places. A slope board, or 

 plank, extends from the edge of the floor to the 

 bottom of the feeding-place. The bottom of this 

 slope board should not be over twenty-three inches 

 from the front of the stanchion. More than this 

 makes a cow strain to reach the feed at the front 

 side of the feeding-place, and in doing so she pushes 

 her bedding from under her into the gutter be- 

 hind. This space, ten inches deep and twenty-three 

 inches wide, is all that is needed. From four to four 

 feet six inches should be allowed from stanchion to 

 gutter for standing room. Few cows are less than 

 four feet long in body and few more than four feet 

 six inches. From the edge of the cow platform to 



