FARM MANAGEMENT 119 



While sunlight is of great importance the comfort of the stock 

 requires that during certain seasons of the year, when flies and other 

 insects are troublesome, the windows should be screened or dark- 

 ened by curtains. This is too often neglected and animals are left 

 to the torture of the insects. Flies are unsanitary and it is espe- 

 cially important that they be excluded from dairy barns, as the tor- 

 ture inflicted by flies very appreciably checks the flow of milk. 

 This is so well understood in some European countries that dairy- 

 men blanket their cattle while on pasture. 



Ventilation. What is known as the King system of ventila- 

 tion is being used extensively in modern barns. The King system 

 consists of two sets of flues. One set provides the fresh air, while 

 the other furnishes an escape for the vitiated air. The inlet or fresh 

 air flues should be placed not more than ten feet apart and located 

 in the exterior walls of the barn ; the greater the number the more 

 effective the ventilation, since they enable the fresh air to displace 

 the foul air more rapidly. The outlet may include one or more 

 flues, but should be so located as to provide the quickest means of 

 removing the foul air. 



The ventilating flues should be so arranged that the cold air 

 may be excluded in the winter and yet the foul air be removed. 



Stable walls and ceilings should be practically air tight and 

 non-conductors of heat and cold. Doors and windows should fit 

 well. Fresh air intakes should have the outside opening at least 

 3 feet below the inside opening, with the inside opening at the ceil- 

 ing, provided with a valve or shutter. Foul air flues should be air 

 tight and non-conductors of heat and cold. They should have their 

 lower opening about one foot above the floor level, and with as few 

 bends as possible pass upward to a height of at least 25 feet, and 

 should always be 2 or 3 feet above the ridge of the roof or of any 

 nearby roof. In building these flues around a girt or plate they 

 must be enlarged in proportion to the size of the obstruction passed. 



In the arrangement the sunniest, warmest corner should be 

 apportioned to the milch cows. The winter sun will prove a grate- 

 ful tonic to them, and protection from severe cold or wintry blasts 

 will prove a valuable assistance and money saver. Many dairy 

 farmers build their stable walls double with chaff between, but 

 such walls have several serious disadvantages. Inflammability is 

 not the least; infection by vermin, disease germs, and the difficulty 

 of disinfection in the case of the latter, all operate against such 

 walls, warm though they may be. Double boarding, with a good 

 quality of building paper between, and all cracks carefully battened 

 on the outside, will prove much more advantageous. Above the 

 stable single boarding with cracks well battened will prove all- 

 sufficient. 



The Floors. Undoubtedly the most convenient floor for a 

 stable is of cement. The ideal floor is made of cement with mov- 

 able plank floors for the stalls. In localities where the soil is of a 

 clayey nature the natural soil will make a very satisfactory floor if 

 the stalls are floored with plank and plank gutters are provided for 



