No. 4.] DAIRY CATTLE. 59 



promote contentment in the occupant. They should also he 

 thoroughly and often cleaned and well disinfected after each 

 birth therein. Parturient apoplexy sometimes occurs from 

 contagion derived from a lack of disinfection and cleanliness. 



Lighting. 



Go where you will in the old dairy districts you will find 

 nine out of ten of the cow barns built on the underground 

 plan. They are dark, damp and poorly lighted. This is an 

 unsanitary condition, causing tuberculosis, abortion and 

 other diseases which plague the dairyman. Lack of suffi- 

 cient windows makes them dark ; the large amount of moist- 

 ure voided in the urine and exhaled in the breath makes them 

 damp. Put in plenty of double windows. The effect will 

 soon be noticed in the increased tone, vigor and brightness 

 of the cows — my word for it, if you choose to take it, for I 

 have seen it occur dozens of times — and in an increase of 

 color in the milk. In summer when the cows have plenty 

 of sunlight the butter is yellow. In winter it is white. The 

 green, succulent grass has much to do with the question of 

 color in butter, but sunlight has more to do with it than 

 many suppose. Men and vegetables groAV white when con- 

 fined in a dark room. The London butchers wish for white 

 veal and to secure it they contract that the calf shall be fat- 

 tened in a dark room. The effect on the cow and the color 

 of her butter is the same. In the consideration of all these 

 questions, affecting as they do present profit and future sta- 

 bility, we should remember that old methods have come up 

 from men who first consulted their own convenience. The 

 first thought was to save labor and expense, whether it was 

 best for the cow and her final profit or not. 



Our first consideration should be to do that which will 

 promote the efficiency of the cow. To do this we must pro- 

 mote her comfort. We must invest time, labor and capital 

 to promote it, for we sell the results of that comfort. 



Did you ever think, my friends, that we are selling comfort 

 when we are selling milk? 



We are not selling our own comfort or prejudices to the 

 consumer. Hence the higher economy of modern dairy pur- 

 pose. It is in the light of the highest not the lowest econ- 



