Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/410

 38G COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCIIITKCTUUE. feet. The manger should be a boarded, stone, or iron trough, placed so tJiat the upper edge may be from a foot to eighteen inches above the surface of the ground, or about the heiglit of the cow's knees ; and it may l)e eighteen inches broad, and a foot deep. It should be divided into three parts, to admit of putting dry food in one, moist food in another, and water in the middle. In default of this arrangement, there ought to be a division of the manger for water between every two cows. Where cows arc not kept in separate stalls, there ought to be a partition between every two pair, to reach half-way or more to the gutter behind. Between the manger and the wall there should be a passage of at least three feet in width, for supplying food, and for cleaning out the mangers from time to time. The gutter behind the cattle should be at least a foot wide ; and this will leave a passage, between the gutter and the wall, of three feet in width. There ought to be a door in one end of the foddering passage ; and, another as an entrance for tlic cows, in the end of the broad passage. The food may eitlicr be kept in an empty stall next the door, or, what is preferable, in a foddering bay, into which the doors should open. In every cow-house there should be windows for light ; and there ought to be tubes for ventilation in the side walls, or in the roof, similar to those recommended for ■tables, to use when the windows cannot be conveniently opened. The cows may l)e fastened to the front rail of the manger by a halter or chain passed through an iron ring, and loaded at its lower end. The floor of the standing-room ought to be perfectly level, because it is found that, when it is lower towards the gutter than at the manger, it is apt to occasion abortion, when the cows are in a gravid state ; and, for the same reason, the top of the manger or rack, if there is one, should never be higher above the floor than eighteen inches. Morel- Vinde observes that the farmers of Normandy are so particular in this respect, that they not only have their mangers and racks very low, but, when the cows are turned out to grass, they always harness them with a bridle and brechin (bricole Normande), in such a manner as to prevent them from tossing up their heads, or reaching to the branches of trees. 758. A cow-house in which the cows are to stand across the building will afford the same accommodation as that in which they stand with their heads against one of the side walls, at less expense of walling; because the foddering bay, which need not be larger in this case than in the other, serves at the same time as a foddering passage. In these foddering bays Waistell recommends that a cistern should be constructed, in order that when the turnips are topped and tailed in the field, the cart which brings them home may be backed into the bay, and the turnips tilted into the cistern, where, by stirring them a little, the loose earth which adheres to them will readily drop off", and they may be taken out of the cistern, and supplied as wanted to the mangers. This operation is per- formed by means of a grated iron scoop with a long handle. 759. In the cow-houses of laiided proprietors of taste, or in those of large establish- ments near town, various improvements may be suggested on the above arrangements. One of these is, to have a drain covered with oak planks pierced with holes or cast-iron grates along the bottom of the gutter, for the purpose of allowing the urine and thin dung to pass immediately through it, and be carried off", as was practised in the Harleian dairy, near Glasgow ; thus diminishing smell and evaporation, and presenting at all times an appearance of cleanliness. The gutter, in this case, may be very shallow ; and, indeed, if a broom be now and then passed over the grating, so as to press all the dung into it, it might be raised to a level with the floor, and the open gutter entirely dispensed with. Grated bottoms to gutters, with drains imderneath, are common in the cow- houses of men of wealth in France and Germany ; where there is sometimes, as in the king of Wirtemberg's dairy at Weill, a supply of water at one end of the gutter, always ready to be turned on by a cock, every time it is cleaned. Tliis is the case also in the cow-houses of the Agricultural Institution at Schleissheim ; and it is found there not only to keep the gutters sweet, but, by the obvious increase it afl^ords of fluid matter in the manure tank, to supply the means of rotting a greater quantity of straw in the dinighill which is there kept over it, and moistened with the fluid beneath by means of a pump. Another improvement is, having all the divisions in the manger, intended for water, on the same level, by which means they may be simultaneously sujjplied by turning a cock ; or the same thing may be accomplished, if they are on a uniform slojie, by sinking them six or eight inches below the general surface of the bottom of the manger, and haTng a false bottom, or water channel, leading from one to another. In this case, after the first division was filled, the water would run along the false bottom or water channel and under that of the dry and moist food divisions of the manger, to the next water division, and so on to the end. It must be confessed, however, that supplying cattle with water in this way is a refinement that can only be worthy of adoption in very extensive establishments ; for cattle, like all other animals, when regularly fed, and properly treated, will only drink at stated ])eriods after they liave had their due supply of solid food, and at these periods they could be let out to drink in the