1909.] The Construction of Cow Houses. 



549 



sufficient. These in themselves are trifling details, but they 

 are items of immense importance in connection with the 

 cleanliness of the animals, and indirectly with the purity of 

 the milk. The reason for making the manure channel as 

 suggested above is that when the cattle have been in the house 

 for a few hours, the manure which they make is so great 

 that if the channel is any narrower than suggested it becomes 

 blocked with manure from side to side. In the interval more 

 or less urine is constantly being passed by all the animals, 

 and instead of getting an outlet to the cistern, it remains 

 dammed for the time being between each heap of manure. 

 Under these conditions every time a cow lies down there is 

 * a liability of her tail dropping into the pool of urine, which 

 later on she switches over her own body and that of her 

 neighbours. This mixture of urine and thin dung is soon 

 dried by the heat of the bodies of the animals, and during 

 the act of milking part of it becomes detached in the form of 

 dust, and drops into the milk. Cows so stalled can only be 

 kept reasonably clean by the expenditure of an excessive 

 amount of labour on the part of the attendant, and no matter 

 what amount of care is exercised during the process of milk- 

 ing, the milk itself is sure to suffer. 



Before a cow-house can be considered efficient in regard 

 to the cleanliness of the animals, or the purity of the milk, 

 it must be provided with a manure channel having a minimum 

 width of 24 ins., and constructed as suggested. People who 

 have not had experience of a wide manure channel fancy that 

 the cows will have difficulty in stepping across it. Such is 

 not the case, as they seldom make any attempt to step across 

 it. They simply seem to ignore it, as owing to its shallowness 

 they step into it, as if it were not there. Even although every 

 known precaution is taken, extraneous matter will at times 

 enter the milk, but if the manure channel is badly designed, 

 or if the work is indifferently executed, it will be found almost 

 impossible to produce milk even approximately pure. 



Floor Space. — While some of the details in connection with 

 the construction of cow-houses have in the past received 

 more consideration than their importance warranted, the 

 question of floor space is undoubtedly one to which 

 somewhat more attention might reasonably have been 



