The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-03-30
Rations OF Air and Sunlight,

constantly ana empnaLlCblly OlbCuBbeO
in every place where dairy matters are
under consideration, it is the pure air
and sunlight that are necessary for the
comfort and health of the animals. We
are aware that this subject has received
frequent and earnest consideration thr
oughout New England especially during
the past three or four years, and It
should be kept constantly at the front
for years to come or until the ruinously
bad practice of keeping dairy cattle in
close and dark stables is aban bonded.
The disposition in the past to secure
the last quart of milk at the expense of
the health Of the animals has produced
hundreds Of tuberculous herds and
caused great public expenditure of
money in order to restore the herd to its
former healthfulness and vigor. Give
the animals fresh air, sunlight and
moderate exercise and less trouble from
this source will be experienced.
A writer in The Breeders Gazette
discusses the subject with reference
both to dairy and beef animals, and
says:
The practice OF close and constant cno-
finement is only practicable when ami
mails are to be sent to the block after
limited period of stall feeding. For
breeding stock and growing animals
and also for milk COWS. where vigorous
health rather than fullness and thick
ness of flesh are most important, the
well-balanced rations of fresh air and
sunlight are factors no less important
than the kind and quality Of feed allowed.
In fact the feed may be the most
complete rations science can compound,
but tx the animals are confined in quart
ers where the atmosphere is damp from
these excretions and the air laden with
germs of disease and sitting from being
used over and over again, the feed can
not do the double work of nourishing
and purifying the blood. The latter is
the office of pure atmosphere we'll
balanced with oxygen in excess of the
carbonic acid. The former purifies and
invigorates, but the latter communicates
and depresses. Carbonic acid and
nitrogen in excess, as found in close,
badely ventilated quarters, are poisons,
and the speed of there work is in pro-
portion to there amount.
Corrupting the atmosphere by ami
mails in confinement leads to suffocation
just as surely as shutting of breath by
choking or garroting. The greater the
excess of carbonic acid in the close
stable or pen the less oxygen inhaled.
But this derangment or the balanced
ration of the air is only the antecedent
of another ill. BY respiration the ami
NAL remover carbonic acid from the
blood and supplies its place with oxygen.
The air that comes from the lungs is
different from that which enters them.
| hoo &c &c
gained 3 to 6 per cent of carbonic acid,
a large amount of vapor, traces of am
amonia, hydrogen and volatile organic
substance thrown off from the system.
These putrefying readily in the warm,
damp atmosphere of the stables con-
dense in the windows walls and fixtures
and increase the impurity and danger,
creating conditions favorable for de-
velopment of the germs of all diseases
the animals are subject to. An atmos-
phere charged with the waste of the
body becomes 30 unlike pure air as to
fail to meet the needs of the animal.
Every breath in such quarters only
adds to the arrangement and makes
greater the difficulty of getting supply
of oxygen for the lungs. Absorbing
of oxygen is animal necessity. Blood
cannot be normal or pure without it.
The blood is the great agent or carrier
of nutrition.
A well-balanced ration of air has
twenty-one parts oxygen and seventy
nine parts nitrogen and fraction of
one twenty five hundredth of carbonic
acid. Confinement of men or animals
in close room or stable soon destroys
this balance and we have an excess of
the life destroying carbonic acid along
with other impurities. The atmosphere
of close stable, crowded with animals,
becomes in proportion to the closeness
of the room, the number and size of
the animals and number of inspirat-
ions and exhalations. The work of
destroying the balance between the OK
ygen, and carbonic acid is fortunately
gradual and the return of the grooms
to open the doors for light and feeding
and cleaning admist fresh air and lets
out impure. The shortage of oxygen
in close stables is far more damaging
than shortage of protein in the food.
| Oxygen is to the lungs as important a
factor as protein to the stomach. 1t is
criminal to give all care to furnishing
our animals well balanced ration
while we neglect the more vital point
of securing such light and ventilation
of stables and pens as to keep the sup
ply of air we'll balanced.
Air is cheap. We do not have to
60 to the mills for it or to pay freight
on it. We have an ocean of 1t forty
five miles deep. We only need to let it
into our homes and barnes to save us
from many of the ills and loss we bring
to ourselves and animals for want of
well-balanced ration of air. This and
sunlight is death to microbes. Our
animals may eat too much of our we'll
concoted foods and drink, but they can
not take too much of well-balanced
ration of air. 1t will not fatten them,
but it will give them purer blood and
ward off diseases.