84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



floor, and you see a cow with her hips projecting clear over 

 the gutter so the whole viscera is crowded down into the 

 hips. The whole tendency of that is to produce weakness of 

 the genital parts, and the consequent tendency to produce 

 abortion. See the cow forced by the narrow standing i:)lace 

 to throw the hind feet forward, the gambrels forced up under 

 her, crowding the hind feet way up under her body and her 

 hips projecting over the gutter. If the cow lies down nat- 

 urally, the hind feet must stand out at a right angle with 

 the body. With the stanchion system she is crowded up in 

 this way. 



Gentlemen, if you will study it — oh, if you will study it 

 in the light of the cow, and not in your own light — you 

 will get at a different view of this stanchion system. Bring 

 the cow up here, and then in between this cow and her 

 neighbor you can pass easily. You have a partition so that 

 this neighboring cow shall not step over on the teats or 

 udder of her companion, setting these two-by-four joists up 

 in this way. With this method you prevent the cow from 

 catching on the corners as she rubs, and you prevent one of 

 the most productive sources to-day of injury to the teats and 

 udder. I want to say to you, in my candid estimation, hav- 

 ing investigated several thousand instances — my neighbors 

 come to me constantly — I judge by my herds and from 

 those of others, and I am all the time studying those things 

 — I lind, in my candid judgment, fully 75 per cent of all 

 the injuries to the teats and injuries to the quarter are 

 caused by the cows stepping over on to them as one cow is 

 lying down and the other is standing up. Now, if I am 

 right, to correct that evil would be a consummation most 

 devoutly to be wished. 



Mr. Russell (of Great Barrington). What system of 

 ventilation do you use ? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. It is a pretty hard matter to tell 

 which is the best system. We get at it in various ways, but 

 the best system that I have ever seen is to construct a square 

 box pipe running to the roof of the barn, and start that 

 about two feet above the floor, with a damper such as you 

 put into a grain conductor where you let down a supply from 

 the grain box. The damper enables you to control the cur- 



