Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-02-19

ODlBcu 10 DuTll SOHle PORTIONS vi lntll'
Certainly a safe, but not a very economical
way of getting rid of the sewage. If any
of the inland cities or towns like Brattle-
boro and Rutland shall adopt this Leming-
ton plan for the utilization of sewage,
they, like Lexington, will no doubt have
to burn many of the crops which are rails
ed from it. But it will be better to burn
these crops than for the sewage to flow as
it now does, into the rivers which are the
water supply for cities and towns lower
down.
1t has been my privilege to visit great
many farms in New England, and | have
hardly found place where both drainage
and water supply seemed to be entirely sat
isfactory. If the water was good, and
came from a well or spring free from con
tamination, then the discharge of the sew
age was faulty, and vice versa. ! venture
to say that % per cent of the farms in
Massachusetts,, and dare say in Vermont,
either have contaminated drinking water
or defective drainage. If the people ON
the farms were not so much out of doors
food, there would be much more sickness
than now prevails. As it is, am told by
competent authority that there are more
cases of slow and typhoid fever and dyson
terry, and diseases which are supposed to
originate from germs, prevailing in the
country than i'm cities which are provided
with good drainage, and with pure water
from lakes and ponds. The state of Yer
mont is spending thousands of dollars ev-
cry year in the cause of agriculture. More
than fifteen thousand dollars is being eX-
pended at your experiment stations in car
ryng on valuable work but would it not
be in the interests of agriculture if some of
this money were devoted to the inspection
of farms and farm buildings touching their
sanitation and healthfuness. A well or
ganized commission could inspect the farms
of this state within short time, at a cost
OF probably not over $4,000. And would
this not be wise use of some of this mon
ey? Is not the health of the farmer and
his family the prime requisite of New Eng
land agriculture? Did not Beecher say at
your Vermont state fair a few years ago
that the best product of New England ag-
rculture was its men and women? Can
We raise this product to perfection without
good air to breath, pure water to drink,
wholesome food to eat and healthful homes
in which to live?
Barns and their Proper Construction.
One word about barns and will not take
your time longer. 1t Is my misfortune (at
least | so consider it) to own a barn that is
nearly l40 feet long, 40 feet wide, two sto-
ries high, with cellar under the whole of
it. In this barn is stored every year about
a hundred tons of hay, while there is kept
on the lower floor, over the manure, 40 OF
80 head of stock, including horses. In a
cold winters day when the barn is kept
closed to protect the cattle, the air is any
thing but wholesome to breath | am sat
sfed that it is not properly ventilated, and
how / shall remedy it have not yet dccid-
ed. am sure of one thing however, that
if | were to build new barn, | should not
erect such a structure. In fact, | would
have no barn at all, that is in the New
long cheap one-story shed, something like
the tobacco sheds of the Connecticut val
ley. only not so high, with a wide passage
way running down the centre, the cattle
tied to either side, facing the passage way
1t should be set so that the cattle tied OF
the east side would get the morning SUI
and those tied on the west side would ge
the afternoon sun. There should be {
large window back of the cattle admitting
sunlight and air when the weather woulC
permit. 4 large ventilator should run tn,
t whole length of the ridgepole, and so ar
ranged that in the very coolest weather i
e could be partly closed. The cattle shoul'
5 stand on the ground with a drop of fou
e inches behind them, which drop or gull
< should be cemented. | should have pres
ent also an absorbent, either in the form o
= dry earth or plaster, to take up the liqui'
Y portion; and both the liquid and the sol
$ should be shoveled into cart with a falls
r bottom, which cart should be run over a.
6 oX-wagon or sled, and the contents dump
Il ed directly into il, and Immediately haule
g on to the land, thus saving labor in handling
J. There should be two doors to open at eac
II end of the passage-way, which should b
o thrown open in pleasant weather, and int
IS which the hay could be taken. The ha
IS should be stored out of doors in stacks, {
5 it could be put into a hay barn by itse
along with the grain. l should have som
81 distance away from this shed nursery {
/ hospital for sick animals, and it should /
e, so sheathed up that each time it was use
v it could be thoroughly disinfected. Such
Is barn as ! have described could be built fC
'r a third of the cost of the new style Ne
, England barn. 1t would be just as war;
n and much more healthful. Stacking Ina
p near the barn is not difficult task
he stormy weather enough could be got in
ot last the cattle a number of days. If v
i can cart wood or hay to market in storm
ID weather, as many do, we can cart hay I'M
is a COW shed for the cattle.
* In these days of tuberculosis and 9th
N diseases which are affecting all kinds
he stock, cattle and horses, it seems to me Il
e time of the barn cellar and poorly vent
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