530 HAXDT-BOOK OF HUSBAXDRY. 



dairy, where nearly fifty pure-bred and high grade Ayrshires are 

 kept, and kept in the most profitable way, in which it is a rule 

 that, from the time of the first tying up in the autumn until the 

 spring pastures are ready for use, no cow shall leave her stall for 

 any purpose, except when it is necessary to take her to the calving 

 pen. I saw this herd late in the winter, when they had been 

 tied by the neck for four months, and I never saw animals in 

 more perfectly satisfactory condition in all respects. The most 

 perplexing question attending the proper arrangement of cow 

 stables lies in the apparently contradictory requirements of ven- 

 tilation and temperature. Fresh air is indispensably necessary to 

 health ; a tolerable degree of warmth is highly important to profit- 

 able feeding ; and while it should be the study of every farmer to 

 supply his animals with a sufficient amount of fresh air, he should 

 endeavor to do this with the least possible reduction of the tem- 

 perature of the stable. The different means of ventilation, all of 

 which have much to recommend them, may be selected according 

 to the requirements of individual cases, — due regard being had 

 chiefly to avoiding the creation of drafts of air about the animals. 

 The heat emanating from a full-grown and healthy animal Is 

 sufficient to modify the temperature of the air by which she Is 

 surrounded, provided this be not too rapidly removed ; and a well- 

 thatched and warm shed, open to the leeward, Is not a bad place 

 to keep cows in ordinary weather. Certainly It is much better 

 than a barn, through the open doors of which a draft of air is 

 constantly sweeping across their backs. It will be well to have 

 doors or windows opening from the stable toward different points 

 of the compass, being careful to open only such as are not on the 

 side against which the wind is blowing. The foul air, escaping 

 from the animal's lungs and from the decomposition of the manure, 

 should be carried off through ascending ventilators ; but, as the 

 resulting gases of decomposition and respiration are heavier than 

 the atmosphere. It will be best for these ventilators, supplied with a 

 strong draft at the cap, to have their opening near the floor. They 

 will, under this arrangement, remove very much less of the accu- 

 mulated warmth of the stable than if starting from the ceiling. 



