248 MILK AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH CH . xv 



taining milking cows. That these should be expected to 

 have a proper floor instead of a manure-soaked floor, have 

 sufficient light, and be of sanitary construction generally, strikes 

 the farmer as a most exacting and unreasonable proposition 

 which he resists with all his power. 



The one great, almost universal, defect of the environment 

 of the cowsheds is the proximity of the manure heap. With 

 a personal experience of many hundreds of cowsheds, the writer 

 can only recall about half a dozen instances in which this was 

 not stacked quite near the cowshed. Fig. 16 illustrates an 

 extreme but by no means uncommon example of such mammal 

 and litter deposit. As a rule the cows have to wade through 

 a moist, filthy, manure-filled yard to their sheds, and while 

 there they are never free from air impregnated with rotting 

 manure. 



2. The Cows. In most parts of Somerset and other of 

 the western counties the cows are out all the summer and 

 nearly all the winter. Sometimes they come into the sheds 

 for milking, but often they are milked in the fields. In 

 some towns the cows are in the sheds all the year round, and 

 practically all the time. All gradations between these two 

 extremes are to be met with. 



The state of cleanliness in which the cows are kept 

 varies greatly. In exceptional cases the cows are groomed 

 and kept thoroughly clean, but the general rule is to milk 

 cows with more or less manure-caked hind-quarters with or 

 without dirty udders. Veterinary assistance is only called in 

 when a cow is obtrusively ill, and abnormalities such as sore 

 teats and slight udder inflammation are often treated by the 

 farmer himself. 



3. Milking Vessels. Upon some farms the cans are 

 cleaned by steam, but generally hot water heated in a copper 

 is employed. In the writer's experience considerable attention 

 is usually paid to the need of quite clean cans, but many 

 writers have recorded instances of want of cleanliness. Proper 

 places with cement- or stone-flagged floors are often provided 

 for washing the milk vessels. 



4. Water Supply for Cows and Vessels. This varies very 

 greatly, both as regards water for the cows to drink and for 

 cleaning milk vessels. The majority of the cowsheds known 



