The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1883-02-10
HEAT AND vENTrLArIoN.

OuS SAiCuiC " duOtuCE III tue JUSTICES
affairs Of life, and this perhaps in some
cases is evidenced by the treatment Of
our stables. The great effort has been
TO induce farmers to consider that cattle
had sensibilities and rights as we'll as
humans and that, whilst the owners
took care to provide comfortable, warm
quarters for themselves during the winter,
their live stock was too frequently neg.
lected and left to feel the peltings Of
the pitiless storm, and, as remarked by
a contemporary, probably suffering
more than the wild animals Of the for
est, that can at least take what exercise
they require to keep their blood in cir
culation during the inclemencies OF our
winters. Farmers did not realize so
fully then as now the poor economy Of
letting animals suffer from cold. They
had not learned that inch boards, match
cd and nailed on tight around the walls
Of their stables, would really save food;
and increasing the flow Of milk or max
ing any growth in winter were matters
that seldom received so much as thought
the chief aim being merely to get the
animals through alive, so they could be
turned into the pastures again in spring.
But customs have changed and farm
ers have adopted new ideas. The aim
more recently has been to keep the
farm stock as warm as possible, especial
ly mich cows kept for winter milk pro-
duction. The stables are patterned on
the outside, are often made double,
and sometimes are boarded up in front
Of the cattle, so that they are about as
securely shut away from the outside air
as if in tight box. A great many
stables are so tight that when filled
with animals there is no freezing what
ever. II is question il in the efforts TO
secure warmth we have not sometimes
gone to the other extreme and made
our cattle apartments so tight as to rem
der them positively unwholesomc for the
occupants.
In recent discussion on ventilation
in general at a meeting of Connecticut
farmers, DIR. George 4. Bowen showed
how necessary to good health for man
and beast was plenty of pure air, and
how that good air was really more
necessary to health than good food.
He cautioned farmers against making
their cattle stables too close, so that the
milk made in them should be pure and
wholesome. The warm, foul, damp air
OF stables is quite likely to contain
disease germs floating in the air and
lodging in the open milk vessels, and
thus gaining access TO our own bodies
and causing fevers and death. DIR.
Detmers, when investigating the disease
known as hog cholera, had found living
germs, which were sometimes communi-
Gated to other animals, human beings
included. These germs have the power
to retain their vitality for long periods
in damp, warm air, but are soon killed
when exposed to the pure, dry air OF
the heavens.
The arithmetic of breathing is just
little fearful when one learns how many
hundred cubic feet OF air are required
by each individual during each twenty
four hours but then there is some COM
fort in knowing that the gases are ex-
trcmely diffusable, and that there is n
constant circulation OF fresh air through
the joints in the doors and windows Of
our rooms, and that even the plastered
walls are somewhat porous and let the
pure air in and the impure out. An
other interesting scientific fact was
bought out, namely: that impure air
can be breathed by men at work far
more safely than by sleepers or idlers,
so that lazy man may sometimes be
forced to take his choice between work
ing and dying.
The Doctor, in his very interesting
remarks, dilated upon this subject, and
showed how the air sometimes found in
farmhouse cellars, with their heaps Of
decaying vegetables, rotting apples, cab
bages and turnips, sprouting onions, ne
elected pork and beef barrels, cider and
vinegar in all its various stages of fer
mentation, and dried Goldfish hanging
at the head of the stairs to give "body"
to the whole. The lecturer closed by
giving alittle advice. Hesaid that farm
ers, as a class, had been sometimes ac-
cused Of stinginess. However true this
may have been, there would be no i'm
mediate call for economy in the use of
pure air. 1t had been estimated that
there is oxygen enough to last at least
hundred thousand years, so his advice
was "breathe freely"
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