30 



THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 





Fig. 2. a is the flooring ; b c are compartments ; d are 



doors ; e a wire gauze ; / are windows ; g is the 

 door ; h is wire gauze on the same ; i are par- 

 titions ; k the smoke-hole ; I are the walls. 



The building* intended for a granary con- 

 structed on this plan is built in the usual man- 

 ner, except that the walls b are made double, 

 one side of the other, the space between being 

 filled in with salt. The partitions i are so con- 

 structed in the same manner, so that between 

 the different compartments a b c there are double 

 partitions containing a filling of salt. When 

 the granary is finished and ready for use, the 

 floor should be saturated with salt brine. The 

 house is now to be smoked by the introduction 

 of a stove-pipe through the hole k, the pipe being 

 connected outside with an ordinary stove the 

 smoke being carried through the hole k directly into the interior of the building ; sawdust, 

 or any kind of wood used in smoking meat will answer. 



When the house is being smoked, the doors and windows should all be closed, but in clear 

 weather the windows may be opened for ventilation. The grain may now be put in ; and 

 if in bulk, it should be thrown up against the walls, slanting down towards the corners of the 

 garners. The partitions between the compartments are high where they join the walls of 

 the building, and slant down quite low towards the centre of the same, which permits the 

 introduction of light in the various parts. The house should be smoked at least once a month 

 with sulphur, and likewise with wood and sawdust during cloudy or sultry weather, which 

 are the periods when the weevil and other insects generate. If no insects be carried into the 

 granary with the grain, none will appear during the season ; should any have been carried 

 in, they will perish, and not generate any more. The object of the gauze at the top of the 

 doors and the windows is to admit currents of cold air when an opportunity occurs. Salt is a 

 substance very destructive to insects. By the employment of smoke in the manner described, 

 any superabundant moisture occasioned by the use of salt will be carried off, and the condi- 

 tion of the granary may be at all times properly preserved. 



The claim is as follows: " I am aware that salt has long been used as a filling between the 

 timbers of ships, and also between the walls of ice-houses ; and therefore to such devices I 

 make no claim. But I claim the mode herein described for making granaries, having the 

 walls, floors, and partitions filled in with common salt, in the manner substantially as set forth." 



David Leavitt's Barn at Great Barrington, Massachusetts. 



ABOUT two years since, David Leavitt, Esq., late President of the American Exchange Bank, 

 New York, purchased for his son, who had a taste for rural pursuits, a beautiful farm of three 

 hundred acres, situated about one mile south of the delightful village of Great Barrington, 

 Massachusetts. With the assistance of Professor Wilkinson, late Principal of the Agricultural 

 Institution at Mount Airy, Mr. Leavitt commenced a series of improvements which, for the 

 labor and expense attending them, are probably unequalled in the annals of American agri- 

 culture. The situation of the farm commands not only varied and picturesque scenery, but 

 is admirably adapted for that system of improvements which its proprietor is so energetically 

 and bountifully executing. Its outline is nearly quadrangular. On the south-east the farm 

 is bounded by a high mountain, from which two streams run through a portion of the farm, 

 forming a junction in a deep ravine a short distance from the house. A few rods below this 

 junction, a dam is thrown across the ravine, and the arrested waters form a large and beauti- 

 ful pond, if we recollect rightly, about twenty feet deep. 



The barn is built in the ravine ; in fact, one of its sides forms the dam to which we have 

 alluded. It is a gigantic building, spanning the ravine, two hundred feet from side to side, 



