No. 4.] CLEAN MILK. 429 



year to year. These ideas are applicable to almost any stable 

 in the average barn, and at no great cost. 



Forty or fifty years ago the barns were perfectly venti- 

 lated, with half-inch cracks between the boards, but too cold 

 to make milk iti economically. Farmers were advised to 

 reboard the barns Avith matched boards and then inclose the 

 stables, making them air tight, and not to turn their cows out 

 to water, and even to warm the water. Result, vitiated air, 

 no exercise for cattle, debility and tuberculosis. This caused 

 great financial loss to the farmers, and the expenditure of hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars by the State to eradicate the 

 disease thus engendered. Next, farmers were advised to 

 build stables large enough to furnish certain air space per 

 cow ; and these often proved to be too cold in winter, too 

 warm in summer, and sometimes too damp Avhen closed. It 

 is admitted that such stables need not have these faults, pro- 

 vided they are properly constructed. These changes have 

 been costly, and those who have managed to live through 

 them, financially and otherwise, can hardly be blamed if tiioy 

 are inclined to go a little slow along the line of further 

 outlay. 



In the beo^inninoj of this article milk as secreted from the 

 healthy coav was taken as ideal. The health of the animal, 

 therefore, becomes a matter of prime importance. Suitable 

 feed, pure water, good ventilation, proper exercise and 

 good care are all necessary. The confinement of cows in 

 stables is, of course, unnatural, but has to be endured like 

 all artificialities. The question comes on where to draw 

 the line between essentials and non-essentials, and that is 

 usually governed l)y common-sense and the exigencies of 

 the case. There is such a thins: as beino; " more nice than 

 wise ; " and the successful dairyman will be the one who 

 can draw this line aright, thus accomplishing results with 

 minimum expense. Some people object to using stanchions ; 

 but the stanchion is not hard for the cow after she becomes 

 used to it. Tjdng a cow up at all might with equal pro- 

 priety be considered cruel. The real inhumanity comes 

 from the practice of keeping the cows in stables all (he 

 time; and, as a limited amount of exercise in the open air is 



