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Show IS YOUR COW BARN PROPERLY VENTILATED AND LIGHTED? Winter will soon be coming on and the cows, instead of having the abundant abun-dant ventilation and sunlight which the open fields give will be confined to barns more or less during five months of the year during their milking milk-ing period. The cow needs fresh air quite as much in winter as in summer, sum-mer, and can not properly perform her function, whether it be producing milk or meat, without this abundant supply. Therefore we raise the question: ques-tion: Hhve you provided for ventilation ventila-tion in your cow barn? If, when you open the barn door on a cold morning the steam pours out, you may know that your barn is not properly vcntilatcdl How was it with you last winter? If it was not properly prop-erly ventilated, then your cows have not (been comfortable. If the steam, which b the breath of the cows and their perspiration, has made the atmosphere at-mosphere so damp that it becomes a good conductor, your cows have not been as comfortable as they would have been in a well made open shed open to the south. You do not feel so comfortable on a foggy day as on one clear and cool. Do you want your -cows to continue in that condition this winter and thus make an inefficient use of the fifty-cent corn and the clover hay that you are feeding? Moreover, your cows will be breathing vitiated air heavily lalcn with carbonic acid kgas, which is injurious in-jurious to them, air which is deficient in the oxygen which is absolutely essential es-sential to her making proper use of the feed. 1 There is no reason why anyxcow barn can not be properly ventilated, no matter how tightly built it may'be. All that is necessary is to provide an intake near the floor on the outside, carry it up and let the air into the stable near the ceiling and to provide an outlet in the shape of a box of pkmed and grooved material reaching from within six inches of the floor to the roof. One box is sufficient for ten, fifteen or twenty cows, depending depend-ing upon its location and size. This outlet, of course, must go up to the roof, and must ibe so constructed that it can bo regulated according to the temperature and the direction of the wind. This is what is known as the ' King system, and is regarded as the best system as" yet developed. It has the advantage that it can be constructed con-structed by any carpenter, or by the farmer himself if he is at all handy with tools. Equally important with ventilation is lighting. Wc arc having a great deal of complaint of tuberculosis among cows in dairy sections. If farmers far-mers really knew the extent to which this disease prevails, and must necessarily neces-sarily prevail when hogs arc allowed access to the droppings of dairy or other cattle, there would be an earnest earn-est inquiry everywhere for a remedy. Wc do not propose to give the remedy here, but simply point out the fact that tuberculous herds arc almost universally found in barns that arc deficient in ventilation and in sunlight; sun-light; for sunlight is the great cheap disinfectant. There is plenty of sunlight sun-light outside even in winter, and all that is necessary is to let it in through glass windows, so that it reaches every part of the barn. This can be done at small expense by any farmer, and would be done if he realized the value of sunlight as a disinfectant. Every farmer knows that young pigs, lambs, or any other young things, never thrive in a dark pen. They must have sunlight; and while the oows do not need sunlight as much as calves or young things generally, nevertheless nev-ertheless is is essential to good health. Wc therefore raise these questions, and wc will be glad to give full details de-tails as to the best method of ventilating venti-lating their cow stables to any of our readers who arc wide enough awake to their own interests to write us for information. |
