EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
183 
reverse of sanitary, where all the known principles of 
ventilation, drainage, lighting cleansing and watering, are 
quietly, and without remonstrance from any authority, 
ignored. 
There is a fiction current that every cow kept in a shed 
is entitled to a thousand cubic feet of space in w r hich to 
breathe, and that no cowkeeper can keep more cows in his 
shed than he has room for, calculated on that basis. If 
this be so, we can most positively assert that the bovine race 
has been for years past systematically defrauded. It might be 
difficult to prove from practical observation that so large a 
space is certainly necessary for the health of the animals, 
it would be perfectly easy to demonstrate that they, as 
a rule, manage to exist with less than half that amount, 
while all the theories of sanitarians relating to the dele¬ 
terious effects of bad air and water, insufficient light, and 
accumulations of filth, are upset by the system of manage¬ 
ment of the average cowkeeper. 
Under the provisions of the new order, which we 
understand the local authorities are putting in force with 
considerable vigour, many of the defects which have become 
subjects of chronic complaint may be remedied. The mere 
act of registration will be beneficial in a variety of ways, 
because the fact of a man having to enter his name and give 
some account of his premises and stock, is calculated to 
make him set his house m order as a preliminary step, 
under the impression, which will doubtless prove to be 
correct, that the visit of the inspector will follow in due 
course. 
On the subject of the proposed registration of all who 
follow the trade of dairymen, cowkeepers, and purveyors of 
milk, a considerable difficulty appears to have arisen as to 
the definition of the terms employed. In this commercial 
country all classes engage in some occupations which are of 
the nature of trading for the purpose of profit, but it is 
not usually concluded that a man is a trader unless he 
habitually follows a certain line of trade. As man is not a 
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