128 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



animals are in yards, stalls, or boxes, receiving turnips or 

 swedes, oil-cake, hay-chaff, and bean-meal. 



If fed in boxes the cattle are given about 100 square feet 

 of standing room, their bedding is not removed so that the 

 floor of the box is two feet or so below the ground level, and 

 on this a small amount of straw is spread over the manure 

 day by day, which is well trodden in by the animal. A 

 compact putrid mass results, invaluable to the farmer in 

 the course of a few months, but unspeakably insanitary. 



Yard feeding is preferred in some parts of the country, 

 a shed gives the needful protection from the weather, the 

 manure remains undisturbed but is less objectionable, as 

 with the shed system there is much more air, only one side 

 of the building as a rule being closed in. 



In stall feeding the cattle are tied up, generally in pairs, 

 with barely sufficient room to lie down. Their system of 

 feeding is the same as above described, but their manure is 

 received into a channel behind and does not remain under 

 the animals. 



It will be observed that in all these systems the farmer is 

 aiming at two results, he wishes to fatten his animals and 

 he wishes for manure. For all intents and purposes cattle 

 undergoing this regime are meat and manure making 

 machines, without the latter it is doubtful whether the 

 former could be made to pay, especially where food is 

 expensive as the result of a bad season. 



It is equally certain, however, from a sanitary point of 

 view, that the whole system of animals living on their own 

 excreta is wrong, and that no difficulty should be felt in the 

 present day of labour saving appliances, of saving all the 

 manure, protecting it from loss, and still keeping animals 

 under hygienic conditions. This question will be referred 

 to again later on. 



It is quite impossible here to give an account of the 

 system adopted by different feeders in preparing cattle for 

 sale. Each has his own idea of the food required and how 

 it should be divided over the day, and each has his preju- 

 dices and fancies. 



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