24 HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN CATTLE. 



or compost bed, by a door, the bottom of which is on a level with the bottom of 

 the trench. Back of this trench, on the opposite side from the cows, is the 

 platform for the attendants. This is usually about six inches lower than the 

 platform on which the cows stand, and about eighteen inches above the bottom 

 of the trench. It is necessarily made wide and roomy, for from it all food is 

 carried to the cows. Along the side of this platform, running its whole length, 

 is the partition that separates the stable from the rest of the farmhouse. 

 Through this partition doors open to the granary, haymow, milkroom, and 

 sometimes to the kitchen. 



There are no means for putting cows into such a stable except across this 

 platform and trench. This would be a very serious objection to it if the cows 

 were turned out daily for air and exercise. This is never done. Their cows are 

 put into their stables once a year, about the middle of October, and turned out 

 once a year, about the middle of May. Thus they remain in them, without 

 going outside into the open air of the fields for a moment during the whole of 

 the six months that constitutes the inclement season. They have no exercise 

 except what they obtain in moving about within the limits of their stalls. They 

 appear more healthy in such confinement than does the average American dairy 

 cow that gets a taste of outside wintry weather. Their hair, almost always, 

 looks smooth and right, not rough and staring, and there is no uneasiness mani- 

 fest in their appearance. In the even temperature of such stables, with plenty 

 of food and gentle attendance, they seem to pass the winter in the height of 

 bovine enjoyment. In putting them in and taking them from such a stable, a 

 small wooden bridge is used spanning the trench and wide enough for a single 

 cow to walk on with her attendant. This moves from stall to stall. When the 

 work is completed it is put aside until the time comes for again using it. 



There are two fastenings for each cow. One, a rope passed around the head 

 under the horns and tied to a ring in the cross partition, beside which she 

 stands; the other a peculiar instrument that needs description to be understood 

 by an American reader. It consists of a yoke fitting the neck like the hames of 

 a harness, to which is added a small trace chain from five to six feet long. The 

 yoke opens at the bottom, at the middle of which the chain is attached. In the 

 platform at the rear of the cross partition to which the cow is tied an iron hook 

 is placed over which the links of this chain can be firmly hooked. The object 

 of the deep trench hitherto described, as the reader no doubt recognizes, is to 

 receive the droppings. The object of this instrument is to keep the cow so 

 closely to the trench that her droppings will go nowhere else. With this yoke 

 and chain she may be drawn back or allowed to go forward at the pleasure of 

 the attendant. The size or length of the animal would make no difference with 

 the distance at which she may be made to stand or lie from the trench. When 

 cattle are thus fastened there is some danger of their hind feet slipping into this 

 trench. And it is so deep a cow is liable to be more or less bruised in the 

 struggle to recover. This is probably the reason why permanent feeding boxes 

 are not used. Food placed on the floor is readily kept within reach of the cow 

 by the attendant. To further guard against slipping into the trench, a ledge 

 about an inch and a half wide and of the same depth, drops from the floor 011 

 which they stand into the side and top. This catches her foot when the cow 

 slips and warns her to recover. If the warning is not heeded and her feet go to 

 the bottom she remembers the lesson for a long time, and such an accident 

 rarely happens to her again. The stable is visited by the attendant much more 

 frequently than in America. Very rarely an hour passes night or day that an 

 attendant or some other member of the household does not look after the cows 

 to cleanse the trench and adjust their fastenings. 



It will be seen that the ventilation of these stables can be easily regulated. 

 The windows in the outside wall between every two animals, the air spaces in 

 the high roofs to which access from the stables can be easily gained, and the 

 ventilators above, provide the most ample means, yet they are often kept very 

 close and in the judgment of Americans altogether too warm from animal heat. 

 But no evidence of discomfiture is shown by the cows. They seem to especially 

 enjoy an atmosphere that is almost suffocation to a person who is habituated to 

 the outside air. Undoubtedly they consume much less food in such an atmos- 

 phere and if they give as much milk and are as healthy, we must defer to the 

 wisdom of these dairymen in thus keeping them. 



As you enter one of these stables for the first time in winter and walk down 



