324 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



The object of a narrow stall is to ensure the whole of the 

 urine and faeces being passed into the drain behind ; this is 

 done not in order that the cow may be kept clean, but that 

 no manure may be lost. We have touched on this question 

 before, and it is evident from what was then said that any- 

 thing which is calculated to cause a loss of manure will not 

 meet with acceptance. Still we consider the minimum 

 actual standing space should not be less than 22 feet, that is 

 to say, the actual stall not including the manger should 

 measure 5J feet in length and 4 feet in breadth clear inside 

 measurement.* Almost invariably there are two cows in 

 each stall, a proceeding which, though sanctioned by custom, 

 cannot be regarded as a hygienic proceeding. Each cow 

 for its own comfort and on sanitary grounds should have a 

 separate stall. 



We are perfectly aware in making this suggestion it will 

 not meet with the approval of owners ; to them it means 

 expense, for their accommodation will require to be increased. 

 At one time the State placed its soldiers two in a bed, but 

 the overcrowding killed them off with tuberculosis, and it 

 was found economical to accommodate them more liberally. 

 But there is another aspect to the cow question — viz., that 

 of cruelty. The country cow spends six months of its life, 

 and the city cow still longer, standing on a space 5J feet by 

 3 feet, utterly unable to move from side to side, backwards 

 or forwards, and dependent entirely on the good-nature of 

 her neighbour for rest. Add to this that many, certainly 

 those in Scotland, get no bedding, and the lot of the cow 

 cannot be regarded as an enviable one. 



Cattle Stalls. — The stocks (they can hardly be called 

 stalls) in which cows are kept for so many weary months of 

 their life, are devised with the object of saving the whole of 

 the solid and liquid manure, and it is a very proper question 

 to ask how this loss can be avoided if a larger superficial 

 area be given to the cow ? If a cow be given 4 feet in 

 width and 5| feet in length, exclusive of the manger, 



* The Local Government Board takes no notice of superficial space 

 in cow-sheds. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



