Nl VEP 



STABLE CONSTRUCTION AND SANITATION. 27 



to know about these points and decide. Before the foundation is built, it 

 of course has been decided whether the building is to be one or more stories 

 high, and the foundation planned for the load that is to be carried. Make 

 the foundation ample, as it does not cost much more; piers can be built 

 very cheaply. In 1876 I built a barn 50x60 feet and put under it, beside 

 the outside wall, over 40 stone piers, those under the posts being thirty 

 inches square. This barn was built with a basement story for stock, and 

 twenty feet above for hay and grain, and it has stood up to its load so well 

 that I put a cement floor on the second story after the barn was twenty-five 

 years old, and it is carrying the load all right. This was done to utilize 

 room for cows that was made for hay, and was not needed for hay after the 

 silo had taken the place of the haymow. 



There is a barn in my neighborhood that is about the age of the one 

 that I have described that is nearly ruined from not having had a good 

 foundation under it. Nothing will stand without a good foundation, it 

 does not matter whether it is a barn or a man 's character. 



I ceil the outer walls inside the stable with matched lumber so as to give 

 a dead air space as a protection against cold, and to give a surface to white- 

 wash, which is the best way I know of to keep the stable sweet and light. 

 The cow stable should have sufficient windows to make it as light as a dwel- 

 ling house ; there is just as much need of light in one as the other. 



I use cement floors in all stables where we milk, and should make nothing 

 else if I were to build more stables. I use the individual stalls in all my 

 milking stables. These stalls are so built that the cow has all the freedom 

 possible, with cleanliness, as she is not tied by the neck, but is held in the 

 stall by a rope or chain across the rear, and an adjustable front by which 

 means she can be held lined on the gutter, as it is necessary for her to be if 

 she is to be kept clean without an attendant. I use a continuous cement 

 manger which is very readily cleaned. I do not like an individual manger 

 for the reason that it is very hard to keep clean. But a continous cement 

 manger, with sewer connections, is very easily kept clean, and this is a neces- 

 sity if high grade work is to be done. A dirty manger is not a sanitary 

 manger. 



My cows go outside for their water most of the time, though I can 

 water in the cement mangers when it is desirable. I once came near putting 

 in the individual water trough, and have been pleased that I did not do it, 

 for several reasons; the main one of which is that they are not kept in a 

 sanitary condition. Standing water in the stable is an excellent purifier 

 cf the atmosphere, but is not fit for a cow to drink after it has purified the 

 stable. The cows will drink while eating and drop food into the water 

 buckets where it will soon ferment. A professor of dairy husbandry who 

 had visited many modern cow stables looking for ideas to incorporate in a 

 new barn to be built, told me that he had not found a case where the in- 

 dividual water bucket was in a good sanitary condition. 



