116 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF FARM BUILDINGS. 



PEOF. J. B. DAVIDSON, AMES, IOWA. 



The design and construction of farm "buildings is an important subject 

 with all those directly interested in agriculture, and one which is worthy 

 of much greater consideration than is usually given to it. It will not 

 be possible for me to treat the subject except in a general way for at 

 least two reasons; first, the subject is too large for the time allotted to 

 me, and, second, the science of farm building design is undeveloped, and 

 is one of the problems of the day. 



Viewed from any standpoint, farm building design and construction 

 must occupy an important place with those interested in agriculture, if 

 thought be given to the subject but for a time. Consider first the capital 

 invested in farm buildings. For the United States it is necessary to 

 refer to the twelfth census report, the complete data from the thirteenth 

 census not yet being available. 



The fixed capital of farms is divided by the 1900 census into land, 

 buildings, implements and machinery, and livestock. The relative im- 

 portance of these is indicated from one standpoint by the percentage 

 which each bears to the whole: 



Land 59.9 per cent 



Buildings 21.4 per cent 



Livestock 15.0 per cent 



Implements and machinery 3.7 per cent 



100.0 per cent 

 It is to be noticed that the value of farm buildings exceeds that of all 



livestock, and is equal to about one-third of the value of the land. 



The 1907 Year Book for Iowa gives the values of the various properties 



for the state as follows: 



Value of land $1,552,106,448 or 69.7 per cent 



Value of buildings 303,750',975, or 13.4 per cent 



Value of livestock 340,826,266, or 15.1 per cent 



Value of farm machinery 41,232,368, or 1.8 per cent 



The preliminary report of the thirteenth census has been announced 

 and furnishes values which differ widely from those given above: 



1910 1900 



Value of land $2,799,025,000 $1,256,752,000 



Value of buildings 454,6*94,000 240,803,000 



Value of implements and machinery 95,273,000 57,961,000 



Although the value of buildings has practically doubled during the 

 past ten years, its percentage of the total fixed capital of the farms has 

 undoubtedly been lowered on account of the large advances in the value 

 of land. 



Too little thought is given to the conservation of labor on the farm 

 by the convenient arrangement of the farm buildings, enabling the work 

 of feeding or the chores to be done with the minimum of effort and time. 

 It would be difficult to estimate the great loss of labor due to the present 



