2 BULLETIN" 736, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT. OF AGRICULTURE. 
The closed barn consists of a barn entirely inclosed with stall 
room enough to accommodate the entire herd. The animals are 
kept in the barn during most of the late fall and winter, and in some 
dairies the entire year. 
It is almost the universal practice of dairymen to keep their cows 
in a closed barn of some type, although in recent years some have 
used the open shed. Advocates of the latter have maintained that 
the manure is handled more easily and is better preserved and that 
the cows yield more milk and butterfat and are healthier, cleaner 
and more comfortable than when confined in a closed barn. Dairy- 
men who have had experience in stabling cows both in closed barns 
and in open sheds disagree as to the merits of the two. In order to 
obtain definite and reliable information on the problem the experi- 
mental work hereinafter described was carried on at the Dairy Di- 
vision Experiment Farm, Beltsville, Md., near Washington, D. C. 
The results should be applicable to other parts of the country in a sim- 
ilar latitude. 
REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK. 
Fraser 1 of the University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, investigated the open-shed system of housing dairy cattle by 
sending out a list of 21 questions to dairymen in Illinois who used 
the open shed. The answers of the 18 dairymen who replied indi- 
cated that the rnilking barn was kept cleaner when the open shed 
was used, and that the cows and the milk were cleaner. In almost 
every case more bedding was required, and the cows showed no 
tendency to injure one another. In the latter connection it must be 
Temembered that in the opinion of the Illinois dairymen mentioned 
above dehorning was believed to be necessary to the success of the 
open shed. All who replied to Prof. Fraser 's inquiry had either 
dehorned or polled cattle. In answer to the question " What do you 
consider the chief advantage of keeping cows in this way over ordi- 
nary stabling ? " no one fact was so generally emphasized as the labor- 
saving feature of the open shed. 
In an investigation at the Maryland Agricultural Experiment 
Station conducted by Buckley and Lamson 2 the open stable was 
compared with the closed stable. The following is a brief summary 
of the conclusions drawn from the experiment: 
The cost of construction for the open shed is smaller than for the closed barn. The 
cost of labor and the cost of milk, based on quality of feed consumed, is slightly less 
in the open shed than in the closed barn. In the open shed, manure is better pre- 
served and cows are kept cleaner. The supply of fresh air and light is also better. 
i Fraser, W. J. "Should Dairy Cows be ConSned to Stalls? " Illinois Circular 93, 1904. 
2 Buckley, S. S., and Lamson, R. W. Open Shed Versus Closed Stable for Dairy Cows. Maryland 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 177. 
