The Monitor-register. [volume] (Woodstown, Salem Co., N.J.) 1892-1972, 1897-08-27
The Cow Barn of the Future.
JOHN GOULD, OHIO.

mOQolOu vi thC 0oAy Aho "a SN'S $780,
try, any that we shall in the future build
more in accordance with our wants, and
the convenient care of our stock, and not
erect costly structures which make much
show but necessitate crowding the cattle
to fit the barn rather than the reverse.
The improved methods of dairying and
the trend of circumstances that are max
ing old ways wholly Improbable, call to
the dairymon to investigate and see If
| compliance with the new ways does not
demand economy in the construction Of
the barn, in the saving of unnecessary
cost, space and labor, rendering the COWS
uncomfortable, with stalls planned to
fit the COWS, and at the same time COM
ply with the requirements of cleanliness.
The rapidly increasing practice Of
winter dairying, and the success of the
later systems of cold storage, two equal
izing the offerings of dairy products
upon the market, has made the dairyman
student in his profession He sees he
must dairy it 365 days in the year, and
the barn must be in everyday use all the
time. So the old 80 K 40 foot structure
with it's cramped and limited stables is
wholly unsuited to his wants. The yet
more modern stone walled basement
barn, summon nted with it's castle like
structure, is an extreme as far the other
way from desirable utility. A barn to
meet modern requirements must be warm
in winter and cold in summer, light,
easily kept clean, one that dries out
readily, in fact, desirable living room
the year round. Not one stone basement
barn 10 ten answers the demand. Too
little light, liability to be damp, bad ven,
tilation, close and musty in the suE msr
and redolent with smells in the winter
when doors must be closed, are their OBJ
jections. The advent of the silo, and i s
stores Of food compressed into the small
est space, and of character that calls
for summer conditions of life, the small
demand for hay for winter fee ding, and
the prospect now that the summer soiling
rs ton will be corn put into special silo
the autumn before, make the huge barn
to hold the bulky crops of little use save
to stand six months of the year cavern
of winds, bringing no profit, 10 fact a
loss by depreciation of value and despair
Then how shall we build? With the
entire change in foods, there is no occa-
sion to pitch the rations up hill and theI
| down again, so the low barn fills the
requirements of the case. The demand
for plenty of light makes it imperative
| that there shall be no blank walls in the
| stables, so the latter needs to be dis
| tinct affair as far as it relates to anythiDe
that will obstruct the light. This light
balloon frame, boarded inside and out
with lining of building paper, extending
| north and south, 81 feet wide inside and
| at least nine feet in the clear, and cased
| windows so that each COW shall have an
advantage of three square feet Of glass,
seems to be the desra BILE stable of the
future. The studdiDg of this barn may
be sixteen feet, which gives large hay
or straw loft, but the overhead floor
should be of matched stuff so the hay
shall not be fouled with the breath of
the cattle and vapors of the stable.
The plank floor laid on "sleepers" has
no place in the modern cow barn. Let
the floor be made on the ground, first
clay thoroughly pounded down, and
then cemented or tiled. The new paving
brick laid in Portland cement makes a
| fine floor.
No floor should be tolerated that has
space under it to become a cavern of fou
things solid or liquid. The stable fittings
will not be the unspaced row, but hal
box stalls, at least six feet, in which swC
COWS will stand fastened with halters or
some of the chain suspended stanchions.
| The old rigid stanchion is relic OF the
past days, when COWS were only tied uI
nights and were fed outdoors. 1t might
have answered a purpose, but now when
for seven months the COWS are 10 tho
stables most of the time, land even the ad.
vocates of exercise admit that their COWS
are only out ''little while daily" the
COWS must have more freedom of move
ment than the old stanchion gave, hence
the popul arity of the halter and neck
chain. This COW will be kept cleanly by
proper gutter behind her, with grating
over it, not gutter that will hold tht
accumulations of two weeks, but a small
trench, which will be cleaned every day
and laid plaster sprinkled, horse
manure or some other absorbent as good
placed in it, and the stable kept clean
and devoid of smells. The ventilators oil
this stable will not open from the top OF
the room SO as to allow all the warm air
| to escape, but will reach within foot of
the floor, and, reaching to the cupola
above, carry off the foul air and gases
that lie in the lower level.
Device in the managers, SO that at the
proper time the COWS can be watered and
each have her portion in peace, and If
not wanted at one time, can be had at
the time wanted. At one end of this
stable will be a combined silo and hay
barn, provided the loft is not large
enough to contain the little hay that the
dairy of the future will demand. This
silo will be large enough to hold the feed
wanted from fall to spring, and con-
nected with it will be small, deep silo
to hold the feed put up in the fall to soil
| the COWS from the time of drying feed
until the regular soiling crops are in sea-
son. This barn with its windows will
| give the COWS all tie advantages of sun
light in the winter, the double walls and
good doors W ill make it free from frost,
the ventilators coming to the floor will
keep the air pure without carrying off
the warmth, screens and a shade at the
windows will make it cool in the sum
mer and free from flies. Best of all,
such barn with all the modern i'm
provements, convenient in every respect,
economical in every method, will only
cost hundreds of dollars, where the
castle-like structure with stone base
ment, and superior to it in no point of
utility, costs its thousands. -AnaericGn
Agriculturist.
|
| YELLOWSTONE PARK.