The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-06-20
FARM AND GARDEN.
A Plea for the Bosses.

Agricultural Editor. A plea for the |
bosses, not of the Tweed McKane |
stripe (perish the thoughtO or the sys-
tenn of which they are the offspring,
but for our gilt-edged herds of cows,
which are being killed off, about as fast
as their originally good constitutions
will allow, by too close confinement in
their winter stables; but, instead of
making short work of it, as did Othello
and the managers of the Black Hole of
Calcutta horror, the process is grad
ual one, varying according to the meas
ure of mistaken kindness in the own
ers. There are thousands of stables in
the state so close that the heat from the
animals, which mostly comes from the
deoxygenated gas expired from their
lungs, keeps the temperature above the
freezing point in the coolest weather
The weakness of the claim that proper
ventilation can exist with such condi
tons is too apparent to need demon.
stration. A cow requires four times
the amount of oxygen that man does.
Now figure out one cows share of the
air space allotted to a herd in such win
ter quarters; take one-fourth of such
space, and suppose a man, in winter
weather, to be shut up in room OF this
size, kept Just close enough to allow
the heat from his body to warm the
room up to the thawing point, add the
usual accomplishments of stable, keep
him there day and night through the
winter, except few hours airing on
pleasant days, and imagine the result.
consider such lack of ventilation
the main cause of tuberculosis, pneu-
monia, and many other ills in cattle.
The blood with its freight of impuri-
ties, gathered in its course through the
system, rushes to the air cells OF the
lungs, expecting to meet there the oXy-
gen, to assist in its publication, but
finding little there except the very
things it wants to rid itself of. 1t
leaves only part of its load of filth,
and carries the rest back into the sys-
TEN, depositing it wherever it can.
This operation is continually going on,
making the whole body frst-class
feeding place for all manner of diseases,
contagious and spontaneous. The tn
berculosis germ would jump miles of
healthy tissue and light unerringly on
feast like this, and would set all its
available forces at work at once. With
the air.cells of the lungs in this crowded
condition, only slight chill would be
required to close up the already con-
tracted spaces, and then it would be
pneumonia and perhaps strangulation.
Our stockmen, by depriving their de-
pendents of the DEMONSTRATING oxygen,
the free use of which is the right of
every breathing creature, are doing
much harm; in encouraging the in ro-
duction of diseases, old and new IN be-
queathing trouble to the herds OF the
future; in influencing others 10 ihe
same course; in puttps lntO tne marKet
infected dairy products and meat, ana
so endangering the pubic health; and
in violatins the law for protection OF
animals rom abuse. L believe that
only small share of the trouble is due
to nigh feeding, as the same feed that
would soon use up COW under the
suffocation system would be harmless
with good air to breathe, as oxygen
goes great way toward neutralizing
the evil tendency of an excess of car
bon in the food. The lower animals
are unlike the human, for when they
can have their choice of foods they
will stop eating when they have had
all they need. 1t is when they are sub
jected to the conditions that have made
human bodies what they are that they
.
ideal.
l do not criticise arti6cially warmed
stables for cows, if we'll ventilated;
warm air is not necessarily impure, but
with or without artificial heat, / would
have outlet ventilating pipes with reg
ulators at the back of the stable, run
ming from near the floor out of the
roof, with revolving vane caps at the
7 Cd ha air
the front, and never at the back of the
stables, and so regulate the outlets that
gentle current would always be pass
ing backward.
When the constant presence of good
air at the nostlils is insured l would
make them comfortable by blanketing
if necessary. They have as good right
to blankets as their keepers have to
bedquilts. Impure water has share
of responsibility in the ow-poisoning
process; many of the reservoirs are
much too large, and they should have
an automatic syphon arrangement for
periodically emptyng them, wholly or
partially. This applies possibly to
many of the highway watering places,
at which no sensible horse will ever
drink. Our domestic animals, while
admitting the superior governing abil-
ity of the two-legged things whom they
are obliged to call masters, must have
an exceeding low opinion of their judg-
ment in many things, and wonder what
such race was made for, while the
wild animals have good reason for the
same fear and hate that the mother
hen has for the hawk.
Gentlemen - put, or imagine your
selves in their place, and see how yor
like it. II. l.. BIXBY.