216 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



older and wiser. In our harsh, capricious climate, 

 walls of stone-concrete afford the cheapest and best 

 protection alike against heat and frost, for our ani- 

 mals certainly, and, I think, also for ourselves. Let 

 the farmer begin his barn by making of stone, laid 

 in thin mortar, a substantial basement story, let into 

 a hillside, for his manure and his root-cellar ; let him 

 build upon this a second -story of like materials for 

 the stalls of his cattle ; and now he may add a third 

 story and roof of wood for his hay and grain, if he 

 sees fit. His son or grandson will, probably, take 

 this off, and replace it with concrete walls and a slate 

 roof; or this may be postponed until the original 

 wooden structure has rotted off ; but I feel sure that, 

 ultimately, the dwellings as well as barns of thrifty 

 farmers, in stony districts, will mainly be built of 

 rough stone, thrown into a box and firmly cemented 

 by a thin mortar composed of much sand and little 

 lime ; and that thus at least ten thousand tuns of stone 

 to each farm will be disposed of. It may be some- 

 what later still before our barn-yards, fowl inclosures, 

 gardens, pig-pens, etc., will be shut in by cemented 

 walls ; but the other sort affords such ample and per- 

 petual lurking-places for rats, minks, weasels, and 

 all manner of destructive vermin, that they are cer- 

 tain to go out of fashion before the close of the next 

 century. 



As to blasting out Stone, too large or too firmly 

 fixed to be otherwise handled, I would solve the 

 problem by asking, " Do you mean to keep this lot 



