468 
J. M. PARKER. 
stored; and if the barn upstairs get too crowded, one or more 
animals will be turned into the cellar. It is always dark and 
damp; the sunlight never penetrate there ; the manure is thrown 
down, the liquid portion runs along and soaks into the ground ; 
in many cases it is a little lower than the yard, and more or less 
of the surface water flows into it. It is never drained ; usually 
it is damp and w<*t all summer; the ground only dries by evap¬ 
oration ; and, according to Prof. Kedzie, “To evaporate one 
pound of water consumes enough heat to raise the temperature 
of five and one-half pounds of water from freezing to boiling 
point.” Or to vary the illustration : “Suppose that a tile drain 
discharges constantly for a day a stream of water whose cross 
section is one square inch and velocity two and one half miles 
an hour, this one day s drainage would save the heat equivalent to 
nearly six tons of'coal!' 
Further, we must remember that barns are usually warm ; 
this warmth causes a current of air upward, so that this damp, 
chilly air is drawn up into the barn above, where it does the 
most harm. 
In referring to this condition Prof. Kedzie forcibly remarks: 
“ The evaporatio 7 i of so much water renders the air over such a 
soil damp and chilly.” This result is a physical necessity. 
This damp and chilly atmosphere has a more serious result than 
the simple feeling of discomfort. It has a most depressing in¬ 
fluence on the human system, lowering its tone, enfeebling the 
vital powers and acting as the predisposing cause of a long list 
of diseases, some of them the most destructive and incurable 
known to the medical profession. The depressing influence of 
the dampness and chilliness of a water-soaked soil is not to be 
compared to the effect of an occassional wetting, as when we are 
caught in a shower, the chilly dampness of the undrained soil 
is persisting and unremitting, dragging us down with its cold fin¬ 
gers at all hours, at “noon of day and noon of night,” as if we 
toiled and rested, waked and slept in a perpetual drizzle of cold 
rain. It may seem a small force at first, but its persistent, un¬ 
tiring and relentless pull, tells upon the strongest at last, like the 
