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

lated stable has gone by. You would not
sleep over such a place yourself, and yet
you will put 80 or 80 head of stock in a
tight barn over a barn cellar from which
are arising all the fumes of the manure,
and perhaps carrying with it germs of dis
ease that are likely to affect the cattle
These fumes are not only being inhaled by
the cattle, but they permeate the hay loft
and grain bin, communicating everything
they touch.
The old fash oned country barn, with
the manure heaps outside, and with the
large doors at both ends and cracks so big
that you could see through them at every
board, might not have been so warm or so
conducive to a large flow of milk; but it
was certainly more healthful than the mod
ern two-story air-tight barn, with an air
tight cellar under the whole of it. Devo-
tees of the barn cellar believe in it because
it is supposed to preserve the fertilizing
qualities of the manure. True, it does
when the manure is not allowed to heat
but when it begins to heat, then the loss
is probably as great as it would be when
exposed outside. If the ammonia arising
from heating manure will take the paint
off of carriages and rot the harnesses,
what must be its effect when inhaled by
/ the cattle and horses all the hours of the
day and night for at least six months of
/ the year? But how much fertility is there
/ in ton of stable manure? DIR. Goess-
mann says only % pounds. 1t should be
saved, but it should be saved in the most
economical way possible, and both health
and economy are on the side of the plan
/ which have proposed, namely, get it into
/ the field with as little labor and as quickly
as possible.
Who ever heard of tuberculosis and
! CHAMBERS 80 or 80 years ago, among New
! England stock? These diseases and many
others are present with us today, and
they will not be rooted out until we
lation of farm buildings, and the purity of
the food and water supply.
believe the time is coming when all
farms which supply milk or butter for the
market will be inspected by public inspect
ors for the purpose of determining their
sanitary conditions and the health of their
stock. | fear there is more tuberculosis
and other diseases among our herds in
| New England than We are aware of, less
| probably in Vermont than in any other
state, but ii no doubt exists here to some
extent. Is it not sin to make milk and
send it to market for young children to
drink from cows that are in the last stages
of consumption or that are suffering from
diseased hips or swollen joints which Is
but another form of the same disease Is
it not a sin even to make butter from such
cows? For if the milk from which the
cream is raised has not been heated to at
least 100 degrees, the germs of disease are
as likely to be conveyed in the butter as
in the milk or cream. have seen so much
of tuberculosis among cattle that for some
time | have not allowed drop of milk "a
be served at my table either from my own
herd or from any other that had not been
heated to 100 degrees for at least 30 min
utcs, SO as to sterilize all germs of disease.
We are constantly hearing of typhoid fe-
yer, scarlet fever and diphtheria breaking
out in the cities in the best localities where
all the conditions would seem to conduce
to the best of health; but when the matter
has been Sifted, in too many cases it has
been found to come from the milk supply
When farms, farm buildings and farm
stock are properly inspected by conscien
tious health officers, and their surrounding
and conditions improved, We shall hear les
about diseases among cattle and horses, an,
among the people who live on these farms
or who consume the milk which come
from them.
Yet as one writer has said, If sanitar,
reform is to come at all, it must, like al
other reforms, come through the active, en-
ergetic and intelligent action of the peopl
+ themselves" and if have said anything
7 tonight that has given you better under
r. standing of these matters, and that vii
f lead even one of you to a more careful con
| sideration of the safety of his family AM
l neghbors, | shall feel amply repaid 70
e coming to this meeting and giving you m
L personal experience touching this subject