The morning news., 1889-03-18

A writer in the American AgricuIturist
says that when cows are stabbed all night
and the greater part of the day. it becomes
a matter of concern how they should be
Uttered SO as to secure the most perfect
cleanliness. Swamp muck dried is the best
Of all absorbents, but it is Objectionable as
litter because the dust penetrates the cows
coat, and however well she is brushed it
will be falling into the milk pail at times.
Sawdust will absorb the moisture very
well, but it is not valuable as manure,
while swamp muck is. Consequently l use
both of these in the stable. Plenty of dried
muck Tor peat) is spread in the
gutter and in the manure cellar, and
hard wood sawdust is spread under the
cows By a proper arrangement of the
floor, the stall and the ties, and the gutter,
the COWS may be kept clean, with very little
currying. The gutter should be half filled
with the dry peat SO that no liquid remains
for the cows to draggle their tails in, and
two or three inches of sawdust should be
spread on the floor Hard wood sawdust is
better for the soil than pine, which decays
very slowly.
dispensable for cleanliness. The waste of
the skin, the scale or dandruff which peels
off, and all loose hairs are taken off, and
the dried perspiration which has a disa-
greeable odor, and is really au excrement,
is removed. The friction is exceedingly
beneficial to the animals, stimulating the
skin, encouraging the perspiration, and re-
moving from the blood those used up waste
matters which are offensive, and would, if
not thus got rid Of, escape with the milk.
This is the cause of what has been called
the animal odor Of the cows and the milk,
and which has been truly charged with ex-
ercising an injurious effect upon the milk as
a decomposing ferment But the true odor
of clean, healthy COW is not disagreeable,
much less fetid. Virgil wrote of the sweet
breath of the heifers, and any dairyman
may experience the same if he will take
pains to enable the skin to throw off the
waste matters which will naturally pass off
when the COWS are free to clean themselves
by rubbing their skins, and in other ways.
Exposure to foul air is uncleanliness. The
stables should not only be well cleaned AID
purified by plenty Of fresh litter and pla =
ter, which neutralizes the odor of a stable,
but also by ample ventilation with abund-
ant space for each COW A COW needs 80
square feet of floor space and feet above
the floor for a sufficient supply of fresh
air; that is. feet of the floor of a stable
20 feet wide and 9 feet high; so that wide
passages in front and rear of the stalls are
needed for health as well as convenience
Good health is one of the elements of
cleanliness, for disease of any kind is ways
productive of fetor of breath, or exhala-
ton, or excrement, which being caused by
wrong internal condition will certainly af-
feet the milk
Clean food is another element of cleanli-
ness, and pure water is included. Perhaps
there is no other place except chemists
laboratory where greater attention must be
given to secure a perfect cleanliness and en-
tire absence from all interfering matter
than in a dairy, including the stable as a
most important part of it.