496 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



readily diffused through the air ; it sooner finds its level and 

 is retained in the system, where, from want of oxygen, the 

 vitality is lowered and the dulness and lethargy experienced 

 such as is felt by any one after sleeping all night in a close 

 room. 



Most farmers that object to the admission of fresh air in 

 their barns do so because they say that cold barns and cold 

 draughts blowing on the cattle will check the flow of milk ; 

 but it is not necessary to have these cold draughts. Judg- 

 ment must be used to see that the admission of the fresh 

 outside air does not cause draughts ; the volume of the 

 incoming air should be broken up and evenly distributed 

 through the barn, so that currents of cold air and draughts 

 are avoided. The question of the absolute necessity of good 

 ventilation and pure air, and its influence on health, is not 

 merely a theoretical one, but, as will be shown later, its 

 immense influence on health and disease can easily be 

 demonstrated. 



The want of drainage and the presence of dark and damp 

 cellars under the barns is another matter that bears a close 

 relationship to the warmth and comfort of the barn. The 

 cellar is usually dark and damp ; the sun never shines there, 

 and either the drip from the floor above or the surface 

 drainage from the yard keep it in a continual state of 

 moisture. This continual dampness below the barn is in a 

 great measure responsible for the cool, chill feeling that one 

 often feels on entering a barn. The cellar is never drained ; 

 it dries only by evaporation, and the feeling of chill that 

 one experiences is a direct result of the warmth being used 

 up in the work of evaporation. One hardly realizes what 

 this amounts to ; but we are told by Professor Kedzie 

 (New Hampshire Board of Health report, 1893, Vol. H.) 

 that : — 



To evaporate one pound of water consumes enough heat to raise 

 the temperature of five and one-half pounds of water from freezing 

 to boiling point ; or, to vary the illustration, suppose that a tile 

 drain discharges constantly for one day a stream of water whose 

 cross-section is one square inch and velocity two and one-half 

 miles an hour, — this one day's drainage alone would save the heat 

 equivalent to nearlj^ six tons of coal. 



