Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-12-17
Barn Cellars and Sanitary Milk.

Barn Cellars and Sanitary Milk.
The present agitation for better and
cleaner products can but tend to pro-
duce good results; results fraught with
benefits TO producer and consumer alike,
and nowhere, in my Judgment, is the
work more salutary than in connection
with improved stabling for dairy cattle.
Still, there are certain conditions that
count for convenience in and around
our stables that must be considered, and
before Internationally condemning any
of them, it is well that they be fully un-
derstood.
The barn cellar has become so firmly
established in New England that il will
be impossible to eradicate it. There
fore, it is we'll to look the matter square
ly in the face and try to get at facts con-
eerning it. | presume at least nine
tenths of the herds in Maine from which
has gone the high-scoring butter that
has been exhibited at our dairy meetings
for the past few years, and the cream
that stands at the head of the list for
flavor and keeping qualities, have been
kept over manure cellars. Now, one of
two conditions must be admitted; either
clean, sanitary milk is being produced
by these herds, or clean, pure, germless
milk is not necessary for high favored
butter and for cream of the best quality
II the former conclusion is taken, then
the manure cellar, as New England in
stitution, is not only blameless as far as
producing bad results is concerned, but
should really be commended as a means
whereby sanitary conditions may be i'm
proved If the latter conclusion pre-
walls, then it must, of course, be admit
ted that sanitary boards are working
entirely along wrong lines. But some
may claim that these good results have
come in spite of manure cellars, and
that higher scores on butter have been
made outside of Maine and New Eng
land. Right here comes in another con-
dition not often taken into account:
New England, and particularly Maine
butter, has been and is being made
largely in winter, while the high-scoripg
butter of the west is mostly made in
summer, when conditions of feeds and
surroundings are ideal.
APPLICATION OF MANURE AS MADE.
| suppose there is no one but who will
readily admit that if il were possible, ii
would be wise to apply farm manure to
the soil every day as soon as made, but
in Maine, with our limited areas and our
severe winters, with the deep SHOWS, it
is not possible, and the manure cellars
afford the best, cheapest, most con-
yenient and most healthful method of
storage. They should be well lighted
and we'll ventilated. Plenty of some alb
sorbent material must be used to com
pletely absorb and retain all the liquid
voidings, and fermentation must be pre-
vented by leveling and tramping. All
this is easy, and is, or should be, part
of the detail work upon every dairy
farm.
Ten years ago speaker from the west
declared in a Maine institute that the
manure cellar was an unmitigsted nui-
sance, that if he should come to Maine
again in ten years, Maine farmers would
have gone out of the business of dairy
ing, or would have abandoned their ma
nure cellars. Time has passed, the
decade has gone, but there is more
dairying, and more manure cellars than
ever before, and all the while the quality
of Maine dairy products has been i'm
proving by leaps and bounds. No one
should ever quarrel with method that
brings good results.
do not think the keeping of hogs on
the manure will tend to make the milk
any more sanitary, provided proper care
is taken to keep the manure leveled and
tramped. Unless this is done, manure
from the horse stable will ferment and
create an unpleasant and unhealthy
odor, provided the horse manure is
placed in the same cellar. Hogs, by
their tramping and working over horse
manure, will prevent this fermentation
and help keep the stable sanitary. If
the manure from the cows is placed in
the cellar by itself, there is nothing TO
be gained from sanitary standpoint by
keeping hogs upon it. In fact, the
practice is to be discouraged as much as
possible.
For many years have kept hogs on
my horse manure winters, in large,
light cellar, apparently with the best re
suits. There is no water, mire or htth,
and they remain clean. 1t has been our
practice TO throw a small amount OF
corn on the manure each time the stable
is cleaned The hogs work the manure
over, find the corn, get exercise, and re-
lieve me from the care and trouble of
doing it myself. Our hogs run in past
ure in summer, and really, cannot see
that their work in winter is any more
Objectionable than in summer, as they
dig and root in the low, muddy places.
In fact, if we would change very much
from these conditions, We must radically
change the nature of the hogs. When
hogs so kept are incloSed in pens and
properly fattened, not being obliged to
lie in mud or their own filth, they make
the best and sweetest of pork, which
when produced in this manner ranks
among the most sanitary meat used by
our people.-B. Walker McKeen, Ok
ford County Me-, in New England