SECRETARY'S REPORT. l^jl 



This plan is designed for a substantial wall under the west and 

 north. The vard is to the south, and on the level of the bottom of 

 the cellar ; the hog pen is shown on the west, sixteen by twenty- 

 six feet, under horse stable and floor; the root cellar at the back, 

 fourteen by twenty feet. The linter, (corruption of lean-to ?) byre, 

 or whatever proper, local or provincial name may be applied to a 

 cattle stable, is at the east, forty by fourteen feet ; being above ground 

 and built of wood, is free from damp, and admits of being well 

 lighted and ventilated. The remaining space serves for the manure 

 and a shed for stock. 



It will be observed that the hog pen — the farmer's bank — is, in 

 tbis plan, large, and its location well conceived. Designed to be 

 near the swill-room, it takes the horse manure, and being under the 

 floor, material for composting may be discharged therein through a 

 scuttle from the cart. 



The feeding troughs may be placed under the side of the floor 

 way, and kept in place by fixed vertical rods of iron passing through 

 their ends, on which they may be raised as the manure accumulates. 

 The manure is discharged from the hog pen by a largo door or 

 window opening into the shed. 



The committee offer this plan with much satisfaction ; but before 

 leaving it to the criticisms of the farmers of Maine, we will give it 

 the first cut ourselves. The owner of such a structure must practice 

 " eternal vigilance " or the liquid excrements from the cattle stables 

 will run to waste. The best that may done by providing dry absorb- 

 ents through our long winters will serve only a partial purpose, 

 unless the following plan, or some other equally efiicient, be adopted : 



The width we have given the linter will serve to admit an open 

 reservoir back of the floor, constructed cheaply in the following 

 manner : Take heavy earth, — clay or gravel — raise it to the sills, 

 packing it firmly, forming a trench representing the vertical section 

 of a circle, three feet wide and a foot deep at the centre. Mix 

 hydraulic cement to a semi-fluid state, pour it in the trench, and 

 spread it with a brush broom. Give it a good coating. This will 

 make an indestructible, impervious receiver. Lay the floor tight, a 

 little inclined, with the planks projecting eight inches over the 

 trench, the remainder left open. AYe have this idea from the lips of 

 Prof. Mapes. 



