874 
caring for flowers, which certainly do mean some 
work. 
THE PASSING OF FRIENDSHIP.—I have not 
the remotest idea of why the old system of friendly 
intercourse between neighbors has been abandoned. 
It always seemed to me that my mother and sister, 
both of whom are dead now, took more pleasure in 
their visiting with the neighbors than in almost any 
other one thing of their life. Some way, I feel as 
if the advent of the automobile has been largely 
responsible for this change, and yet it. seems wrong 
to me, because a car is not at all a sociable thing 
and does not take the place, to my mind, of the 
friends that we had before its advent. Financially, 
our neighborhood is vastly better off today than it 
was 20 years ago. Almost any farmer has several 
times as much money to spend as he had at that 
time. The men are reasonably frugal. They are 
alert, hard-working, good business men. and the 
wives of the farm owners, and even in many cases 
of the tenants, are very fine people indeed, but 
whereas 20 years ago almost all our thought and 
care seemed to be along the line of home-making, 
with everything that that included, today most of 
my own neighbors will admit that very much less 
thought is given to the matter, and apparently our 
children are growing up with still less training than 
those who have reached maturity ahead of them. 
At a guess, I would say that less than one-lialf of 
the girls today are as well trained in housework as 
they were then, and there is an equally small pro¬ 
portion of the boys who are being as carefully 
trained to do farm.work as there were. 
WHERE ARE THE FLOWERS?—One of the 
most disappointing things about the whole matter, 
to my mind, is the disappearance of the flowers. 
This used to be one of the principal sources of 
pleasure, not only with my own mother, but with 
every mother and family in the neighborhood, and 
that indifference to flowers seems to me to be a 
retrogression. My mother grew many beds of 
annuals—Portulacas, balsam, Cosmos, nasturtiums, 
pansies, Petunias, rhlox, and very many other 
flowers. She grew some perennials also, one of the 
best being Delphinium. She had a bed or so of 
Sweet Williams, the hardy pinks or Diantlius, a few 
reasonably good hollyhocks, a very few of the old- 
fashioned, early May-flowering peonies and one or 
two plants of Iris, I think of the Florentine variety. 
The new creations in peonies and Iris had not been 
exploited much up to fV, e time of her death, ami 
neither had the wonderful Aquilegia, double holly¬ 
hock. Gaillardia and hardy Phlox been brought to 
our attention. 1 think if my mother could see some 
of these creations, she would be greatly delighted. 
Without meaning the least irreverence, I do not see 
how Heaven itself can contain more beautiful 
flowers than some of these are. 
MODERN TENDENCIES—The tendency of today 
in drawing away from these old-fashioned tilings, 
our intimate fellowship with our nearby neighbors, 
training of the children to be real expert home¬ 
makers, and the growing indifference to the beauty 
and attractiveness of the home itself are what worry 
me. I believe that all things have a cause, and I 
am not sure that I kr nv what the causes of all 
these things are, neiti ” have I any particular 
remedy to suggest. Sometimes public discussion, 
where many minds concentrate upon the same sub¬ 
ject, will bring out both the cause and the cure with 
startling clearness, and both cause and cure will 
be so obvious and so simple that we wonder why 
we never thought of this before. 
CHARLES B. WING. 
Experience with “Moon Theories ,, 
I WOULD like to make a few remarks from actual 
experience over a period of more than r>0 years, 
as well as some facts from observations of my own 
and others in regard to the effect of the moon, and 
so-called signs on vegetation. I am an unbeliever, in 
every sense of the word, in any of these “signs” as to 
their having any hearing on our life work. More 
than 40 years ago a neighbor who held similar views 
with me decided to experiment as to results. Both 
being farmers, we decided to work with the prevalent 
accepted theory, and also against it, thereby getting 
at both sides of the question. As for me, I planted 
potatoes for years in the light of the moon, and all 
root crops the same, with corn, peas, beans and other 
over-ground crops in dark of the moon. Contrary to 
the accepted prevalent theory, I have never been 
able to detect any difference in any degree, and am 
satisfied that weather conditions, seasons, proper 
culture, good seed. etc., are the factors which alone 
make success. As to the so-called “signs,” they seem 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
to be nothing but the rankest superstition. We also 
decided in the event an operation was to be per¬ 
formed which called for the letting of blood, that we 
would wait till the light of the moon, with the sign 
in the heart, which was said to be sure death to the 
animal, by these sign believers. The result was we 
lost one poor little runt of a pig in 40 years. It 
seems that these sign believers must lead a pre¬ 
carious life. They go hopping down life's pathway, 
zigzagging along, trying to miss a sign here, only to 
run into one on the other side, not getting an intelli¬ 
gent view of life and its possibilities as intended for 
us by the Ruler of the universe. Much more could 
be said in support of my theory, but I hope this may 
call out some thoughts from others. Let those who 
have been taught to believe in these signs use their 
minds to think with: chances for a better education 
are superior to our ancestors’ privilege in that re¬ 
spect. Ignorance is the mother of superstition. 
Jefferson Co., Ind. l. d. spann. 
Lighting and Ventilation of Stables 
Part I. 
OMFORT FOR THE COW.—Comfort, as applied 
to the dairy cow, yields a direct profit of dollars 
and cents to the dairyman. The cow is a sensitive 
creature with an “artistic temperament,” and will 
do her best only when comfortable and contented. 
For best results the stable must be more than a 
Diagram of Stable Construction and Ventilation 
Fiff. 233 
shelter; it must be a “cow’s home." and conditions 
within it should approximate those of a .Tune pas¬ 
ture as closely as economical practice will permit. 
Other things being equal, the contented cow is the 
one that returns the largest milk checks. The priu- 
cipal factors contributing to the cow’s comfort while 
in pasture are an abundance of palatable, succulent 
food: a plentiful water supply; liberty, and un¬ 
limited supplies of fresh air and sunlight. These 
can all be duplicated to a certain extent in the 
stable, and in the case of the last two named their 
only cost is that of providing means for their en¬ 
trance, yet they are perhaps more often found lack¬ 
ing than any of the others. Not only should the 
stable be well-lighted and ventilated from a stand¬ 
point of production, but it is being recognized more 
and more as a factory containing machines (the 
cows) by the use of which human food, milk, food 
for babies, is produced, and as such should have 
every aid that sanitation can give in keeping the 
machines in the best of order and their surroundings 
clean and in good order. 
FRESH AIR AND SUNSHINE.—The principal 
aids in stable sanitation are fresh air and sunshine. 
An abundant supply of fresh air dilutes and carries 
away the poisonous and inert gases thrown out from 
the lungs of the animal and gives in return supplies 
of life-giving, quickening oxygen. It carries away 
the stable odors which are so quick to contaminate 
milk, and the water vapors, tending to make the air 
in the stable clean, dry and life-giving. Light is 
also a germicide. Direct sunlight has a considerable 
value in killing germs. The chief value of light in 
a dairy stable, however, is the exposure of filth in 
which germs grow and multiply. 
THE KING SYSTEM.—There are a number of 
systems of ventilation in use. The choice of the 
May 24, 19}!> 
dairymen of the Northern States seems to be the 
system designed and advocated by the late Prof. 
King of Wisconsin. This system is designed to be 
as nearly automatic as possible, and consists pri¬ 
marily of an outtake flue extending from a point 
near the floor to above the ridge of the building for 
carrying out the waste gases, and numerous small 
fresh air intakes situated around the walls for 
admitting fresh air to the interior. The fresh air 
intakes should open near the ground on the outside, 
and pass up through the wall, opening on the inside 
near the ceiling. This is to prevent the warm 
stable air from escaping, as it would do if the holes 
were directly through the wall at the top. This is 
shown more clearly in the diagram (Fig. 233). 
HOW IT OPERATES.—The chief factors causing 
the operation of this system are: 
1. The difference in temperature between the out¬ 
side and inside air. Air weighs about .OS pounds 
per cubic foot, the air in a stable eight feet high by 
3G feet wide by 100 feet long weighing approximately 
2.300 pounds. It also has the property of expanding 
when heated, and as this air becomes warmed by 
contact with the animals it increases in volume, be¬ 
comes lighter and a portion of it is forced up the 
outtake flue. The colder, more condensed and there¬ 
fore heavier outside air forces its way in through 
the intakes, displacing the lighter, warmer air in¬ 
side, making the flow up the flue continuous as long 
as these conditions exist. The action is directly 
comparable to that of the kitchen stove, the outtake 
corresponding to the smoke flue, the intakes to the 
grate and the cattle to the fire where combustion 
takes place, warming the air and causing it to 
expand and rise through the smoke flue. 
2. Wind pressure on the windward side of the 
building, which tends to force the air in more 
rapidly through the intakes, thus hastening circu¬ 
lation. 
3. Aspiratory effect of the wind blowing over the 
top of the ventilating flue. As the wind blows over 
the top of the outtake flue a slight vacuum is formed 
which tends to cause a flow of air upward in the 
shaft. This is similar to the action of the familiar 
hand cattle sprayer, in which the liquid in the con¬ 
tainer is carried up the tube by the aspiratory effect 
of the air jet blowing over it. 
CONDITIONS FOR VENTILATION.—To be suc¬ 
cessful and controllable any ventilating system must 
have certain conditions provided. The chief of 
these is a warm, tight building, one in which the 
only opportunity presented for air to enter or leave 
is by the openings provided for it. The King system 
is no exception to this rule. The heat obtained from 
the animals is the principal source of energy avail¬ 
able for causing a flow of air in the flues, and there¬ 
fore the building must be made warm and tight. 
Tight walls containing an insulating material, as 
closely packed shavings, are good. An air space is 
of little value unless filled with some finely divided 
material of this kind, as without it an internal cir¬ 
culation is permitted, up on the warm side and down 
on the cold. Care should be exercised in fittihg the 
doors and windows, and in the North it is desirable 
that the sash be double glazed and a still further 
protection from the cold. 
SIZE OF FLUES.—In determining the size of the 
flues it is common practice to allow one square foot 
of outtake line opening for every five cows, 20 cows 
requiring an outtake flue two by two feet in cross 
section. To keep the stable air at a desirable state 
of purity it has been determined that 3.542 cubic 
feet of fresh air should be supplied to each cow per 
hour, and this the line above will do when there is 
an air movement in it of 205 lineal feet per minute. 
A flue of sufficient height to reach the ridge of the 
barn will usually provide this rate of flow, but there 
are a number of precautions that should be taken 
to insure a good draft. The Hue should extend from 
a point near the floor—about iy> feet—to a point 
about two feet above the ridge by the most direct 
route possible. If bends are unavoidable they should 
be made as easy as possible and never at right 
angles. It should be smooth inside to offer as little 
resistance to the flow of air within it as possible, 
and should be built tight and warm ; tight to pre¬ 
vent the entrance of air at any point other than the 
openings provided, and warm or insulated, to pre¬ 
vent the escape of heat so that the air within may 
be kept warm and therefore light and buoyant 
throughout its passage of the flue. It must be re¬ 
membered that this difference in temperature be¬ 
tween the air inside the flue and that outside is one 
of the chief factors causing its flow upward, and 
every bit of heat must be utilized, not allowed to 
escape through poorly insulated side walls. The 
construction of flue is shown in Fig. 233. a. h. s. 
