Alfalfa in Kansas. 



257 



The side of the barn opposite to the cattle shed is boarded up from the 

 ground to the roof. It has double doors, 24 feet apart from center to 

 center. These doors extend 6 feet down from the eaves. They are 

 swung on strap hinges and fastened with buttons. Don't use hooks to 

 fasten the doors shut, because they leave the door loose to shake in the 

 winds. 



FIG. 209. A combination hay and feeding shed, without shelter for the cattle. 



Fig. 209 shows a barn of the same general form as Fig. 208, except 

 that it is 36 feet wide, has doors on both sides, and no shed. This barn 

 is 144 feet long and 12 feet to the eaves, boarded up at the ends, and on 

 the sides down 6 feet. It is braced in a manner very similar to that 

 shown in Fig. 208. The frame at the corners and ends is bolted to large 

 hedge posts, 4 feet in the ground and extending about 4 feet above the 

 ground. The doors are 24 feet apart and the same as those shown in 

 Fig. 208. One door is shown open in the illustration. The button for 

 fastening is on the 2 by 4 at the bottom of the door, in the middle. 

 Notches are cut in the doors, so the button, when perpendicular, lets the 

 door shut, and when turned horizontally it fastens the door securely. 

 This button is bolted on with a quarter-inch machine bolt. 



I have another barn similar to that shown in Fig. 209, except that 

 telephone poles were used for uprights. They are much better than 4 by 

 4's. I would recommend, for uprights, white cedar telephone poles, 5 

 inches in diameter at the tops, and would set them 3 feet in the ground 

 in cement. I would use 7-inch tops for the corners and the centers of 

 the ends, and set them 4 feet in the ground in cement. Where poles are 

 used for uprights I brace them the same as when I use 4 by 4's. Care 

 must be taken to tie the rafters with diagonal ties from center to center, 

 and brace the rafters also to the center row of uprights. 



I use the old way of storing my hay, pitching it off the hay racks by 

 hand. I do not use slings and hay forks, because they necessitate a 

 much more expensive barn than I use and one that it is much more diffi- 

 cult to feed the hay from. When hay is stored in a high barn adapted 

 to the use of slings or hay forks, not only is the expense of building much 

 in excess of the barns I use for the same capacity, but when a high barn 

 is full there must be shoots or a vacant space partitioned off between the 

 hay and the side of the barn to get the hay down to the manger. Such 

 arrangements do not appear to me desirable. I build my hay barns so 

 as to get a maximum of utility at a minimum of cost. (See "Sheds," in 

 index.) 



