90 FARM ECHOES. 



those in the adjoining room, which is fitted up with box 

 stalls. 



This hay loft is approached by a massive walled and 

 curved roadway, packed with stone in the center, thirty 

 feet wide, and rising to a height of twelve feet, where it 

 connects on the north side, or back of the barn with a , 

 double "barn floor" in the middle of the loft, and upon 

 which four loads of hay may be driven at the came time. 

 The hay is taken from the wagons by horse-forks (one 

 over each of the two mows), and a ton of it is frequently 

 unloaded in four minutes, and in four forksful one a 

 minute. 



But one fork has been used at a time, consequently 

 but one wagon can thus be unloaded at a time, but as 

 steam power will probably be used hereafter, I hope that 

 two wagons can be unloaded at once. An accurate ac- 

 count is kept of every hay crop the day it is cut, the 

 field from which it is taken, the weight, and the barn in 

 which it is placed. 



The weight is ascertained upon a pair of Fairbanks' 

 scales, well protected from the weather by a building 

 erected for that purpose. A little over three hundred 

 tons of hay are now gathered each season, a large portion 

 of which is in the barns on the afternoon of the day on 

 which it is cut. So much for the invention of Mowing 

 Machines, Tedders, and Horse Rakes. 



From twelve to sixteen acres of grass have frequently 

 been cut, cured, and housed the same day. The largest 

 quantity drawn from the fields and placed in my barns 

 in any one day was a few pounds less than thirty tons. 



The building forming the east side of the square, 



