110 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



DAIRY BARNS. 



By Ernest Hitchcock, Pittsford, Vt. 



It is not the purpose of these remarks to enter into any 

 discussion of architectural or engineering problems in barn 

 construction, but merely to give a few practical hints as to the 

 best arrangement of barns and stables for the convenient and 

 healthy keeping of cows. It may be said in passing, however, 

 that there is no necessity for the use of heavy and expensive 

 timbers in the erection of even large barns. The plank frame 

 barn is an unquestionable success. It depends simply upon the 

 great strength of even small timbers when subjected only to a 

 pulling strain. Such a frame can be so put together that it is 

 practically all in one piece and so that, to be destroyed, the 

 plank must be pulled apart lengthwise. 



Most barns now being constructed are of one of two forms, 

 octagon or T shaped. I have never seen a plan of an octagon 

 barn which fully commended itself to me. If I were to build a 

 new barn to-day I should unhesitatingly use the other form, of 

 which a very fair illustration was given in last year's report, 

 page 70, (18th Vt. Ag. Rep.) Of course the size and many 

 details will necessarily be varied to suit individual cases. The 

 general plan is almost universally applicable. Further, in 

 many cases, it offers the best suggestions for remodeling old 

 barns, the present barn being used for storage and the stable 

 being added new as an ell. The plan consists, in its essentials, 

 of the construction of a main barn to be used for storage of ha)-, 

 silos, grain, etc., and a stable, one story only, built off from the 

 centre of the main barn in form of a wing. The main barn 

 should run east and west if possible and the stable project to 

 the north. In this way the morning sun will flood the east half 

 of the stable, the afternoon sun the west half, insuring the 

 presence of the sun in every part of the stable for some consid- 

 erable portion of each pleasant day, — a consideration not to be 

 overestimated. Provision can be made for caring for the 

 manure in either of three ways. If the herd is a large one the 

 cattle can be tied facing the walls with a driveway between and 

 the manure hauled to the field every day, — in some respects 

 the best possible method. Second, a cellar can be put under 



