250 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



BOOK II. 



them should be seven feet wide. For medium-sized cows, the stalls 

 may be reduced half a foot each way ; and for small ones, more in 

 proportion. The "fodder bing" maybe any width that is desired 

 big enough even for a hay barn, if need be ; or it and the cow-sheds too 

 may be floored overhead, forming hay-lofts for storing forage. This 

 latter arrangement is, however, now considered more or less objection- 

 able, and other means of storing fodder should, if possible, be provided. 

 In the plan (fig. 52), it will be seen that provision is made for eighteen 

 cows, twelve in a double, and six in a single shed, all under one roof ; 

 and it will be obvious that the single shed might be made a double one 

 by simple lengthening of the building. On the whole this arrangement 

 is the best of all, for the doors all open into the yard, and the manure 

 sheds are all out of it, while every convenience for feeding the cattle is 

 provided. It is perhaps as well to say that in order to preserve the 

 volatile and more valuable ingredients of the manure, roofed sheds 



Fig. 52. Plan of Cow-house. 



should be built to contain it until it is taken out on the land. This is 

 the system on which, after long experience and thought, we put up a 

 new set of farm buildings, and managed thereby to secure warmth, 

 light, ventilation, cleanliness, and convenience the chief desiderata in 

 providing accommodation for cattle. 



In the management of milch cows, it is important that they should be 

 kept in good health and in fair store condition all through the year, and 

 particularly in winter the period when they depend on house-feeding, 

 and have no chance of helping themselves to what they can find. If 

 they fall away in flesh during the winter, from insufficient food, food 

 of inferior quality, exposure to cold and damp, or other causes, they 

 cannot yield as much milk in the ensuing summer as they will if they 

 were in good condition, and it takes them a good part of the summer 

 to " get their backs up again," as the saying goes. Cows should not 



