262 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JUKB 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 TIGHT EARNS AKD SICK CATTLE. 



ISIr. Editor : — There has been much written 

 of late, about improvements of farms and farm 

 buildings, and it would not be strange if, in sonie 

 instances, these improvements should be carried 

 to extremes. Several years ago, I learned by ex- 

 perience that tight barns were not healthy for 

 cattle, and a little reasoning upon the subject will 

 explain why this is so. It is a well known fact, 

 that the droppings of cattle, both solid and liquid, 

 exhale a vast amount of gases of different kinds, 

 and these gases are unfit for respiration ; if cattle 

 are deprived of air, and breathe these gases, they 

 die instantly, and if they breathe air impregnated 

 with a large proportion of these gases, they sicken 

 immediately ; the disease most likely to be pro- 

 duced is pneumonia, or inflammation of the 

 lungs, as the poison is applied directly to the 

 lungs. 



Now what provi^on Is made in modern tight 

 barns to get rid of these gases ? Why, there is a 

 ventilator on the top of the barn, but how are 

 these gases to get to the top of the barn, since a 

 large proportion of them are heavier than atmos- 

 pheric air ? The carbonic and sulphurous gases, 

 which are more abundant than all others, are heav- 

 ier than air, and consequently will not ascend; am- 

 monia is light and would Hy away, but the carbonic 

 and sulphurous gases, having a strong affinity for 

 ammonia, seize the fugitive, and by a chemical ac- 

 tion, a new compound is formed heavier than air, 

 which, of course, must remain, unless there is some 

 underground passage by which it can escape. If 

 there is no place for its escape, these gases accum- 

 ulate until the barn becomes filled with them, the 

 hay is impregnated, and the stock has to eat as 

 well as breathe this noxious matter, and the 

 trouble is worse if the stock is high fed. First, 

 because high fed animals have a greater amount 

 of blood, the blood vessels are fuller, and conse- 

 quently a greater tendency to congestion. Sec- 

 ondly, because the excrements of high fed animals 

 evolve a much greater amount of gases than that 

 of others, and the difficulty of ventilation is in- 

 creased by the fact that these gases are so nearly 

 of the weight of air. If they were all light, like 

 carburetted hydrogen, they would soon escape at 

 the top ; or if they were heavy like water, or even 

 pure carbonic acid gas, they would, in most barns, 

 find cracks sufficiently large to run out near the 

 bottom ; but as the facts prove that the gases are 

 nearly of the same weight of air, I am led to the 

 following conclusions : 



First, that the walls of barns should never be 

 clapboarded ; then there will be a gentle current 

 constantly passing through the barn, and the gases 

 passing out of the cracks on the leeward side ; sec- 

 ond, that tlie stable for horses and cattle should 

 extend from one end of the barn to the other, 

 with a door at each end, both of which should gen- 

 erally bo open excepting in severe cold weather, 

 and in storms. I have found by experience that 

 a horse kept up in a small tight stable will com- 

 mence coughing in a very few days. Cattle do 

 not suffer with the cold (unless the cold is extreme) 

 if they are in good heath, are well fed, and have 

 a dry, clean stall, and ])lenty of good air to breathe. 

 The lungs of an ox will manufacture a vast amount 

 of aninial heat. I have known a cow to be win- 



tered with no other shelter than an open shed, 

 more than two hundred miles farther north than 

 Massachusetts, and she gave milk all winter, and 

 came out well in the spring. Now, if it should 

 prove that the sickness among the cattle is not 

 caused by tight barns, and high feeding, yet I should 

 not believe that it was contagious pneumonia, for 

 that would be a new thing under the sun. I can- 

 not learn that there ever was such a disease among 

 cattle as contagious pneumonia. I intended to 

 say something of the treatment of pneumonia, but 

 I have already spun so long a yarn you will be 

 impatient before you get through reading it, there- 

 fore I will close. Stephen Adams. 

 West Neurfield, Me., April 6, 1860. 



Remarks. — No, indeed, — not impatient. Your 

 subject is one of importance, and we hope you 

 will further discuss it. 



SPRING. 



The bursting buds look up 

 To greet the sunlight, while it lin;^ers yet 

 On the warm hill-side, — and the violet 



Opens its azure cup 

 Meekly, and countless wild flowers wake to fling 

 Their earliest incense on the gales of spring. 



Continual songs arise 

 From universal Nature — birds and streams 

 Mingle their voices, and the glad earth seems 



A second Paradise ! 

 Thrice blessed spring ! — thou bearest gifts divine ! 

 Sunshine, and song, and fragrance — all are thine. 



Nor unto earth alone — 

 Thou hast a blessing for the human heart, 

 Balm for its wounds and healing for its smart. 



Telling of Winter flown. 

 And bringing hope upon thy rainbow wing, 

 Type of Eternal Life — thrice blessed Spring ! 



IMPROVEMENT OP VEGETABLES. 



There is no vegetable now cultivated, which is 

 not susceptible of almost indefinite improvement. 

 Yet we see very little difference between the crops 

 produced now, and the crops raised by our fore- 

 fathers. Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes 

 are the same, identically, as we were accustomed 

 to see in our father's fields and gardens forty 

 years ago, except that, in some instances, there is 

 an obvious deterioration as regards both size and 

 quality. This is the plain result of carelessness 

 — a sin to which most cultivators will, we fear, be 

 compelled to plead guilty, and of which they are- 

 annually, although some seeaa not to be aware of 

 it, experiencing the fatal effects. The power of 

 art over nature has already been most forcibly 

 exemplified in the vegetable kingdom, and with 

 reference to some of the very productions which, 

 in this enlightened age, we are permitting to "run 

 out." 



Wheat is a factitious grain, exalted to its pres- 

 ent condition by the assiduities of culture. 

 Neither rye, rice, barley or oats are at present to 

 be found Avild in any part of the world, if Ave may 



