ECONOMY OF THE ROUND DAIRY BARN H 



timber larger than a 2x6 being required above the sill. The arched 

 circular roof requires no supports, and no scaffolding is needed 

 inside during its construction. 



The accompanying tables show the comparative amount and 

 value of lumber and cubical content in round barns 60 and 90 feet 

 in diameter, and rectangular barns of equal area and height of posts. 



ROUND AND RECTANGULAR BARNS COMPARED 



In comparing the 6ofoot round barn with a rectangular barn 

 of the same area, the two barns should afford the cows the same 

 amount of space on the platform. Allowing each cow in the 60- 

 foot round barn 3 feet 6 inches in width at the rear of the plat- 

 form, it will accommodate 40 cows and leave space for two passage 

 ways. But in a rectangular barn, only 3 feet 4 inches of platform 

 space need be allowed for each cow, and the 78^2 foot barn, with 

 two 3-foot passage ways across it for convenience in feeding, will 

 accommodate 42 cows. While the rectangular barn has stall room 

 for two more cows, the round barn contains space in the center for 

 a silo 1 8 feet in diameter. 



The floor space and cubical content of the round barn 60 feet 

 in diameter, and the rectangular barn compared with it in these 

 tables, are practically the same, and the barns are therefore di- 

 rectly comparable. This being true, the percentages which were 

 figured from the complete bills of material for these barns show 

 the exact saving in lumber on the 60- foot round barn over the 

 plank and mortise frame rectangular barns 36x78*^ feet. The 

 lumber bills of the rectangular barns show an increase in cost of 

 28 percent for the plank frame and 54 percent for the mortise 

 frame. The round barn, 60 feet in diameter, contains 188^, and 

 the rectangular barn 225 lineal feet of wall. The rectangular barn 

 has, therefore, 22 percent more lineal feet of outside barn wall, 

 requiring a proportional increase in both paint and foundation. 



The 1 76^4 -foot rectangular barn would hold 100 cows, allow- 

 ing each cow 3 feet 4 inches in width and providing for 3 passage 

 ways of 3 feet each across the barn. 



The 90- foot round barn would hold 100 cows in two rows 

 headed together, 65 of which would be in the outer circle, and have 

 3 feet 6 inches each in width at the gutter. This leaves sufficient 

 room for feed alleys and walks, and two passage ways, one three 

 feet and the other seven feet wide for the manure and feed car- 

 riers. All of this is outside of a central space for a silo 20 feet 

 in diameter and 71 feet high, with a capacity for 620 tons of sil- 

 age, and in the mow there would still be an excess, above the ca- 

 pacity of the rectangular barn, of 33,000 cubic feet, which would 



