102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



for I would rather take my chances with tuberculosis with a 

 cement floor that can be cleaned, than with a plank floor that 

 allows the manure and urine to go down through, making the 

 conditions filthy and dirty. Of course there are arguments 

 on both sides of the cement floor question ; but hundreds are 

 using them to-day, and never had the difficulties which you 

 speak of, and they wouldn't give them up for anything. If 

 I were going to build a barn to-day, I would certainly put in 

 a cement floor, not only from a sanitary standpoint, but from 

 the standpoint of economy. 



Mr. Kilbourn. What do you think of individual drink- 

 ing basins for cows ? 



Mr. Lane. That is a question where there is room for 

 argument on both sides ; but my opinion is, the individual 

 drinking basin is a thing of the past rather than of the future. 

 Most of the modern stables that are put up now are put up 

 with a cement trough in front of the cows to drink out of. 

 The water is allowed to run in perhaps a couple of times a 

 day, then it is turned off. This method is considered more 

 sanitary than the individual drinking basin, that allows the 

 dust and dirt and filth to get into it, even with a cover on. 

 I don't care how much you clean it, it isn't strictly sanitary. 

 I believe the cement trough or modern method is a step in 

 advance of the individual basin. 



Mr. Kilbourn. If you have a tuberculous cow standing 

 near the head of the line, how about that ? 



Mr. Lane. That is perhaps the only objection to the 

 drinking trough, but the same might be said of the individ- 

 ual basin. A good many of them allow the water to run 

 freely from one to another. I have seen two or three cows 

 at one end of the stable drinking the water out of the basins 

 all the way down the line. 



Question. Is it your belief that the present method of 

 storing manure in barns will be barred out within a very few 

 years ? 



Mr. Lane. I appreciate the position of you dairymen here 

 in Massachusetts. You have those barn cellars, and up to 

 within a few years they have been O. K.'d by boards of 

 health and everybody else, but we are getting a little more 



