FARMS. 113 



can be brought about by light expense, with time and patience 

 to help me. 



I am at present making considerable improvement on the 

 highway which runs through the ftirm, by grading and filling 

 and building new walls, which will advance the appearance 

 and usefulness of the road. The maioritv of mv farm-fences 

 are of the ordinary kinds ; but I have found a thousand or 

 more feet of portable wooden fence very useful. 



The only sound building that I found upon the farm was the 

 house, the other buildings being very dilapidated. Some of 

 these have been repaired, others have been torn down, and 

 some new buildings have been erected. A dilapidated barn, 

 fifty-live feet long by thirty-seven feet wide, I have entirely 

 renovated, clapboarded and shingled, and have lengthened by an 

 addition to its front, thirty feet long and forty-three feet wide, 

 so that it covers two commodious horse-stalls, one large box- 

 stall, twelve tie-ups for cows, one bull-pen, ample carriage- 

 room, a boiler and grain room, haj^-scales immediately inside 

 of large barn-door, and storage-room for about forty tons of 

 hay. This year, by filling up much of the driveway from the 

 floor to near the gable, I have made more storage-room. 1 

 shall probably lengthen my barn forty-five feet during the 

 coming half-year. My buildings are painted, except the hos- 

 pital and henery, which are washed with a color to correspond. 

 All the buildings have been built simply, but strongly, with 

 reference to use and with no other ornamentation than to srive 

 their exterior a neat and tasteful appearance without incur- 

 ring unnecessary expense, and many of them have been built 

 by myself. 



The approaches to my buildings and to my barn-yard have 

 been much improved by grading and filling ; but it is impos- 

 sible to describe in a short space on paper how poor a condi- 

 tion I found them in. 



My Ayrshire herd consists of an imported bull, three cows, 

 two heifers and two bull-calves. I have taken great care in 

 selecting those of my animals that I have not raised. 



They are only those which either have been imported, those 

 whose immediate ancestors have been imported, or whose an- 

 cestors' pedigrees can be traced back to their progenitors in 

 Scotland. My Ayrshires are mostly young stock, and include 



15 



