I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



549 



floors, and the arguments in their favor, we 

 feel compelled to suggest, or to repeat, as the 

 case may be, some very strong points against 

 their adoption. In Mr. Mechi's plan, the con- 

 tents of the vaults find their way into a tank, 

 in which they are liquified, and from this the 

 liquid manure is distributed through pipes to 

 the fields. This furnishes a means of realizing 

 the total value of the manure accumulated, 

 which American farmers must long fail to 

 possess. 



But besides this, any plan that interferes 

 seriously with the comfort of the animals 

 must, we believe, prevent their thriving in the 

 highest degree ; any cause that affects their 

 healthfulness unfavorably, must certainly do 

 80. If, then, this mode of keeping is unhealth- 

 ful or very uncomfortable, the condition of 

 the stock must be lowered, and while their 

 progeny would suffer accordingly, the crea- 

 tures themselves must be less fit for service. 

 If they are thus kept for milk, or for slaugh- 

 tering, the actual wholesomeness of the milk 

 and flesh must be lost in greater or less 

 degree ; no matter how plump and fair the 

 animals may appear. But that the new floor 

 makes the animals both uncomfortable and 

 unhealthy is a conclusion easily established. 



In one word, the plan is the very antipodes 

 of the natural condition of the animals. The 

 leaves, earth or grass on which they always 

 choose to lie, are soft, and better retain their 

 warmth ; these slats are rigid, unyielding, and 

 conduct away more of their heat. On these, 

 too, they are in the midst of a larger space 

 that their bodies must lose heat to ; for if the 

 cold air under them will not rise, still their 

 bodies radiate heat into it, which they are not 

 likely to recover. If we depend on fermenta- 

 tion and warmth of the manure under them 

 for heat, this cause must also keep up about 

 them an atmosphere loaded with vapors, and 

 gases arising from the decaying mass. This 

 air, instead of their rightful allowance of pure 

 out-door atmosphere, they must perforce in- 

 hale, and that, to prevent the entrance of too 

 much cold, oVPmd over again! In fact, if 

 we aim to prevent such charging of the stall 

 with offensive vapors, how, except in mild 

 weather, or in weather that would freeze the 

 contents of the vault, is our preventon to be 

 sufficient? What absorbents are likely to be 

 used that will successfully prevent the animals 

 from continually inhaling poisonous exhala- 

 tions ; safe, of course, in weather that allows 

 a free circulation of the out-door air through 

 the stalls. 



But again, the slats would not remain clean. 

 If they did, what use of the hoe? Liquid 

 manure will run from them ; but the semi- 

 solid will only coat over them. Who would 

 for a moment think of resting and refreshing 

 his over-driven favorite trotter or coach horse 

 in this way ? What keeper of a livery-stable 

 will on this plan attempt to recruit his jaded 



spans for the morrow's labor? Not one, we 

 are confident. And this brings us to another 

 objection — the most vital of all. This plan 

 does not even contemplate a natural condition 

 for the animals. It is not devised for any 

 such purpose or object. It does not seek to 

 recruit or to restore and invigorate the ani- 

 mals perpetually, so much as it seeks to 

 restrain and hamper them, to repress their 

 natural desire movement, and so to convert 

 them into mere machines by which a crafty 

 greed of gain fancies it can bring about the 

 laying-on of so much more flesh from a given 

 weight of food, and the heaping-up of a cer- 

 tain sum of manure. The animals do not like 

 to walk about on these floors set with crevices. 

 They slip or catch their feet, get hurt, and 

 reluctantly find it discreet to give up trying, 

 to lie and chew their cud and snore. Their 

 natural evacuations are somewhat checked for 

 want of exercise. The lungs, the skin, fail to 

 perform their functions ; the kidneys and in- 

 testines may do a little more than duty. But 

 the tissues are not duly changed by exercise, 

 and so, the total excrement is imperfect, as 

 well as too small ; the blood is not purified ; 

 more flesh, or rather fat, and juices accumu- 

 late, but they cannot be healthy; and of 

 course such animals become sources of impu- 

 rity and disease to the blood of the person that 

 feeds on them. This cardinal principle of 

 keeping the animal quiet, seems, during the 

 present discussion, to be kept in the back- 

 ground. But it must be considered, and it 

 ought to have great weight against the new 

 mode, unless it can be explained away or 

 obviated. 



It is for the reason last stated, also, that we 

 believe the practice of soiling cattle — confining 

 in stalls or yard in summer, and feeding with 

 cut green crops — may easily be carried to a 

 hurtful excess. We wonder not a little that 

 the clear head of Miss Martineau could bring 

 itself to see this kind of confinement to be for 

 the subjects of it quite as well as a free range 

 over a good pasturage! In behalf of the soil- 

 ing system, it is claimed that it will effect a 

 great saying in the need of fences; so utilizing 

 much land on which fences now are ; that it 

 gives an improvement in the growth of stock, 

 more gentle cows and more uniform supply of 

 milk, and the saving and increase of good ma- 

 nure. The practice of soiling, however, must 

 have its limits, or entail losses in the long run. 

 Animals that have three or four hours run 

 daily, will bear it better ; and this may, per- 

 haps, suffice for perfect health ; but with less 

 than this, their case is doubtful. Again, there 

 are seasons at which soiling is for the animal 

 a decided gain. This is so in the spring, 

 "between hay and grass," and in midsummer, 

 if the fields get dry, or whenever the pasture 

 is too short. For these seasons, the farmer 

 will gain greatly by having a patch of early 

 corn, or other greeu crap that can be put in at 



I 



