Imatges de pàgina
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the manger. This is a convenient mode for the cattle-man, but is costly in the outfit, and allows the wind to blow forcibly upon the heads of the cows. Fig. 73 is a door shut in the opening of the wall on the outside. I prefer giving the food by the stall, when it is 5 feet wide, and no cold air Fig. 73. can come upon the cows. But when the stalls are narrow, a passage of 24 feet in width, betwixt the stalls and the wall, would allow the cattle-man to DOOR THROUGH WHICH TO Supply turnips and fodder. In such a case, the space be

SUPPLY MANGERS WITH TURNIPS.

posts, because cattle, in lying down and rising up, first kneel upon their fore-knees, which would be injured if pressed against any hard substance like stones, and which would be the case if the causeway was not always covered with litter. I remember of a valuable short-horn cow, in Ireland, getting injured in the knees from this cause: they swelled so much, and continued so long in a tender state, that she would not lie down at all; and all the while her owner was not aware of the cause until I suggested it; and on removal of the pavement, and substitution of beaten mould, and proper treatment of the parts affected, she recovered and continued well.

1126. A most excellent pavement has of

hind the cows is reduced to 4 feet in late years been made by the Kamtulicon width.

1124. A wide single stall is not only useful in supplying the food from within the byre, but admits of the cows being more easily and conveniently milked. A double stall is objectionable for several reasons: a cow is a capricious creature, and not always friendly to her neighbour, and one of them in a double stall must be bound to the stake on the same side as she is milked from; and, to avoid the inconvenience, the dairy-maid either puts the cow aside nearer her neighbour, in the same stall-which may prove unpleasant to both parties-or the cow in the adjoining stall nearer her neighbour, which may prove equally inconvenient. Neither is it a matter of indifference to the cow from which side she is milked, for many will not let down their milk if the milkmaid sits down to the unaccustomed side. The best plan in all respects is, for each cow to have a roomy stall to herself.

1125. The floor of byres should be paved with rectangular stones, excepting the gutter, which should be broader than an ordinary square-mouthed shovel, and flagged at the bottom, to form a trough with two curb-stones, and it is then quickly cleaned out. A similarly formed gutter, though of smaller dimensions, should run from the main one through the wall into a liquid manure drain. The causewaying of the stalls should extend only a very little farther than the hind

Company in London, of caouchouc or India rubber and sand, which possesses all the firmness of boards and the softness of India rubber, and is impervious to dampness from below, and unaffected by wet upon its surface. It forms a very suitable paving for the inner half of the stalls of byres, or the stalls of stables. It is to be regretted that so valuable an article is so dear. It was sold two years ago at 9s. per square yard of one inch in thickness, it then rose to 11s., and to 21s., owing, it is said, to the scarcity of the gum, which costs 6d. per lb. in the crude state. It is now 14s. Still, at the dearest cost, I would fit up every byre I had with it.

1127. The India rubber pavement is always laid upon hard concrete, and its durability depends upon the degree of perfection in which the basis has been formed. The concrete consists of putting together, for every bushel of good limeshells, 24 bushels of sharp sand, and 4 bushels of gravel, and mixing them with as much water as to form a paste of the consistency of lime mortar, and which will then have a bulk of 8 bushels of concrete.

1128. A ground work to place the concrete upon is formed in this manner; Let the earth be removed to the depth of 12 inches, and its place occupied with small broken stones, well beaten down and compacted together, leaving room. above them for at least 2 inches of con

crete, and for the thickness of the India rubber pavement to lie above it. The concrete is spread upon the surface of the broken stones firmly, and finished with a smooth surface. Two or three days will be required to render the concrete hard enough for use, according to the state of the weather; but it must not be used until it has become very hard.

1129. The pavement is formed in slabs of about 7 feet long, and 18 inches in width, of two thicknesses, one inch and half an inch. The half-inch is too thin for the purpose of pavement for grown cattle to stand upon perhaps three-quarters of an inch would suffice, but I would prefer the inch-thick in all cases. The pavement is easily cut into pieces of any size with a chisel and hammer. The pieces are laid flat upon the hardened concrete, and one piece is joined by the edge to another, by using a solution of the caoutchouc in naptha, which, being like a thin jelly, is easily spread with a broad knife upon the edges of the pieces of the pavement; and, on these being brought together after a while, the spirituous naptha evaporates, and leaves the gum as a firm cement in the joinings; and after the solution has become firm, the pavement is fit for use.

1130. Fig. 74, is a section of a travis and manger of a byre, as just described, where a is the wall, b the building which supports the manger c, having a front of wood, and bottomed with either flags or wood; d

the hard-wood hind-post, sunk into the ground, and built in with stones and mortar; e the hard-wood top-rail, secured behind the post d, and let into and fixed in the wall a with iron holdfasts;f the stone curb-stone, into which the ends of the travis-boards are let; g the travisboards let end ways into the curb-stone below, and into the top-rail above, by a groove in each; h a hard-wood stake, to which the cattle are fastened by binders, the lower end of which is let into a hole in the block of stone i, and the upper fastened by a strap of iron to a block of wood k, built into the wall a; m is the gutter for the dung, having a bottom of flag-stones, and sides of curb-stones; n the paved floor; o the opening through the wall a by which the food is supplied into the manger c to the cattle, from the shed s behind. This shed is 8 feet wide, p being the pillars, 6 feet in height, which support its roof q, which is a continuation of the slating of the byre roof, the wall a of which is 9 feet high. But where these small doors are not used, the sheds, pillars p, and roof q, are not required, but they might form a convenient turnip-store, to which access might be obtained from the byre by a back door.

1131. Cows are bound to a stake in the stall by means of a ligature which goes round the neck behind the horns. One method of binding is with the baikie, which is made of a piece of hard-wood, e fig. 75, standing upright, and flat to the Fig. 74.

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neck of the cow. A rope g fastens the lower end of it to the stake, upon which it Fig. 75. slides up and down by means of a loop which the rope forms round the stake. This rope passes under the neck of the animal, and is never loosened. Another rope k is fastened at the upper end of the piece of wood e, and, passing over the neck of the animal, and round the stake, is made fast to itself by a knot and eye, and serves the purpose of fastening and loosening the animal. The neck, being embraced between the two ropes, moves up and down, carrying the baikie along with it. This method of binding, though quite easy to the animals themselves, is objectionable in preventing them turning their heads round to lick their bodies; and, the stake being in a perpendicular position, the animals can only move their heads up and down, and are obliged to hold them always over the mangers.

A BAIKIE.

1132. A much better mode of binding cattle is with the seal, which consists of an iron chain, fig. 76, where a is the large ring of the binder, which slides up and down the stake h, which is here shown in the same position as is h in the section of the stall in fig. 74. The iron chain, being put round the neck of the cow, is fastened together Fig. 76. by a broadtongued hook at c, which is put into any link of the chain that forms the gauge of the neck, and it

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sort of binder is in general use in the midland and northern counties of Scotland. It is the most durable form of binder, and gives the animal liberty, not only to lick itself, but to turn its head in any direction it pleases; and the inclination of the stakes gives the animal the farther liberty of lying down or standing back quite free of the manger.

Fig. 77.

1133. A convenient form of window is essential to the comfort of a byre. It consists of two shutters, a a, fig. 77, 2 feet in height, which open by cross-tailed hinges, and are kept shut with thumblatches. The window-frame is made of wood, and glazed with four rows of panes, 24 feet in height, and 5 in number to the width-the opening of the window being 4 feet in height and 3 feet in width. Such a form of window admits of much light and air.

a

BYRE WINDOW.

1134. A good description of window for cottages and offices was made by Messrs M'Culloch and Co., Gallowgate, Glasgow, and for which they received a premium from the Highland and Agricultural Society. "This window is extremely simple in its construction, and may with safety be pronounced efficient in point of comfort and utility; while the price, it is believed, will not be higher than the cheapest description of iron windows now in use, and, for durability, will be preferable to those of any other material. The dimensions that have been recommended for the windows of ordinary cottages are, 39 inches for the height, and 24 inches for the width, within the wooden frames. The size of glass required for these frames is 74 by 5 inches. The sash is divided into 2 unequal parts, the lower part having 3 squares in height, and the upper part 2. The lower part is permanently fixed, while the upper part is constructed to turn in the vertical direction on pivots, which are situate in the line of its middle astragal; and both parts are set in a sub

stantial wooden frame, which may either be built in while the wall is erecting, or set in afterwards in the ordinary way, with or without checked rebats, according to the taste of the proprietor. The window and its arrangements will be better understood by reference to the annexed cuts, fig. 78 showing an inside elevation, fig. 79 a vertical section, and fig. 80 a plan, in each of which a portion of the wall is Fig. 78.

a

THE ELEVATION OF AN IMPROVED WINDOW FOR LIGHT AND AIR.

exhibited, and the same letters refer to the corresponding parts of each figure; a is a portion of the surrounding wall, b the wooden frame of the window, c the lower sash, which is dormant, and d the upper and movable sash. In fig. 79, the upper sash is represented as open for ventilation. When shut, the parts of the opening sash cover and overlap the fixed parts in such a manner as to exclude wind and water; but when ventilation is required, the arrangement of the parts which produce this is such as to enable the admission of air to any extent. For this purpose the notched latch e is jointed to a stud in the edge of the sash; a simple iron pin or stud is also fixed in the wooden frame at s, and, the notches of the latch being made to fall upon this stud at any required distance, the requisite degree of opening is

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* Prize Essays of the Highland and Agricultural Society, vol. xiii. p. 538-41.

1135. It is proper to mention that zinc, in the opinion of tradesmen, is too weak for window-sashes to admit of repair by an unpractised hand. Wood and lead are, for the same reasons, equally unsuitable. Malleable iron, even so thin as to impede the light but little, if the astragals are not provided with flanges for the glass to rest against, the repair must also be a work of some difficulty, and is also deemed unfit for the purpose. Cast-iron, therefore, appears to be the material least liable to objection; but astragals of cast-iron must be of considerable thickness, and such frames, consequently, could not be adapted to a very small size of glass, without materially obscuring the light. The iron sashes, as shown above, without the wooden frames, cost 5s., and glass for such windows may be purchased at 2 d. per square.

1136. It greatly promotes the comfort and health of animals confined for many hours every day in one apartment to have the fresh air admitted to them without the creation of draughts, and no means of obtaining this object is so much in our power, as placing ventilators in the roof of the part of the steading so occupied by the animals.

1137. Fig 81 is a ventilator, in which the Venetian blinds a are fixed, and answer Fig. 81.

A VENTILATOR.

the double purpose of permitting the escape of heated air and effluvia, and of preventing the entrance of rain or snow. The blinds are covered and protected by the roof b, made of slates and lead; c is an apron of lead. Such a ventilator would be more ornamental to the steading than fig. 81 is, and more protective to the blinds, if its roof projected 12 inches over. One ventilator 6 feet in length, 3 feet in height in front, and 2 feet above the ridging of

the roof, for every six horses or cows, might suffice to maintain a complete ventilation. But such openings in the roof will not of themselves constitute ventilation, unless an adequate supply of fresh air is admitted below; and the supply might be obtained from small openings in the walls, including the chinks of doors and windows when shut, whose gross areas should be nearly equal to those of the ventilators. The openings should be in such situations and numbers as to cause no draught of air upon the animals; and might be conveniently placed, protected by iron gratings on the outside to prevent the entrance of vermin, in the wall behind the animals, of such a form as to deflect the air upwards against a plate of iron, to spread it about as much as possible. Other forms of ventilators are in use, consisting of a piece of large lead pipe projected through the roof and bent downwards; or simply a few of the slates or tiles raised up a little, either of which is better than no ventilator at all, but neither so effectual for the purpose of ventilation as the one I have described.

1138. The construction of byres for the accommodation of fattening oxen and milk cows is quite the same, but feeding byres are usually made much too small for the number of oxen confined in them. When stalls are put up, they seldom exceed 4 feet in width; more frequently two oxen are put into a double stall of 7 feet, and not unfrequently travises are dispensed with altogether, and simply a triangular piece of boarding placed across the manger against the wall, to divide the food betwixt each pair of oxen. In double stalls, and where no stalls are used, even small oxen, as they increase in size, cannot all lie down at one time to chew their cud and rest; and as they require more room and rest the fatter they become, the larger the oxen become they are hampered the more. In such confined byres, the gutter is placed too near the heels of the oxen, and prevents them standing back when they desire. Short stalls, it is true, save the litter being dirtied, by the dung dropping from the cattle directly into the gutter, and the arrangement saves the cattle-man trouble; but the saving of the litter in such a case is at the sacrifice of comfort to the animals.

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1139. Such arrangements for economy

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