The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1901-07-27
Cow stalls.

Prof. +. w. Vol, in his book on
So ~ dern Dairy Practice, treating OF
the Infection Of milk, says: 1.
tooslong stall may indirectly be
the cause Of the infection Of the milk.
The hind quarters Of the cow will un-
der this condition be soiled by the
manure when she lies down This is
especially the case with the tai, to
which particular attention must always
pc paid in cleaning the cows. The
COW will often swing her tail during
the milking, and, if it is soiled, filth
will Of course be spread to all sides. I
have. found that the milk may in this
manner be mixed with dirt of the most
onensiVe kind
At farm where the stalls were too
short, and where there was no litter
IN the liquid manure gutter, the COWS
tails We're always wet and dirty; when
/ the cows lay down their tails lay in
the cutters, which did not thoroughly
drain off the liquid manure Although
the cutters were new, holes and re-
scesses had already formed in them in
which the urine and liquid manure re-:
manned and formed pools. By apply
Ing wooden shavings in the cutters
the difficulties were later on avoided.
The cows could then be kept clean,
and the milk became. as consequence,
cleaner, and kept better than was pre-
Vlously the case. I have met with
Hquld manure cutters of even worse
defects than the ones described, in a
large number Of stables in our country.
On another farm, considered dairy
farm par excellence, all the stalls
were too short for the large, fine cows,
SO that the hindquarters and the tails
always lay in the low gutter; the I'd
ders of number of the COWS were
also dirty. What made the matter
still worse was the fact that the stalls
were lower than the barnyard outside,
where the manure heap was placed. AS
a consequence the liquid manure gut
ter was always full of urine. Only a
couple of months after the herd came
in from pasture, these sad conditions
had conquered all the efforts of the
farm hands to keep the animals clean
to such an extent that the headquarters
and parts of the udders were covered
with thick manure crust, and the tail
formed one solid sticky mass. How
impure the milk from this farm must
have been can easily be imagined. 1
cannot give any exact data as to what
extent it was mixed with impurities,
as was not able to examine it closely;
but, judging from the large quantity of
slime gathered in the separator bowl
| when the milk was separated, it was
as one would expect from it's ante
cedents.
Conditions similar to those given
extreme. may be found on other of
our dairy farms'-i e., on farms where
they try, at least in the stable, to main
tain high standard of cleanliness.
What can, then, be expected Of the
| cow stables in the places where they
do not try at all TO follow the funda-
| mental principle of modern dairying-
strict cleanliness? The poor animals
are kept in such places in undisturbed
peace throughout the winter, uncarded
and unclaimed; they are furthermore
often confined in darkness for several
months, as the very small windows
are often wholly showed or frozen over.
| Cow stables where such bad conditions
| exist are still found in many places;
and still people wonder that the milk
coming from these primitive stables is
of poor quality, and that the products
made from it do not keep we'll.