222 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



Dutch barn became proverbial. "As broad as a 

 Dutch barn " was a phrase that, when applied to 

 the person of a man or woman, left room for little 

 more to be said. The main feature of these barns 

 was their enormous expansion of roof. It was a 

 comfort to look at them, they suggested such shel- 

 ter and protection. The eaves were very low and 

 the ridge-pole very high. Long rafters and short 

 posts gave them a quaint, short-waisted, grandmo- 

 therly look. They were nearly square, and stood 

 very broad upon the ground. Their form was 

 doubtless suggested by the damper climate of the 

 Old World, where the grain and hay, instead of 

 being packed in deep solid mows, used to be spread 

 upon poles and exposed to the currents of air under 

 the roof. Surface and not cubic capacity is more 

 important in these matters in Holland than in this 

 country. Our farmers have found that, in a climate 

 where there is so much weather as with us, the less 

 roof you have the better. Roofs will leak, and 

 cured hay will keep sweet in a mow of any depth 

 and size in our dry atmosphere. 



The Dutch barn was the most picturesque barn 

 that has been built, especially when thatched with 

 straw, as they nearly all were, and forming one side 

 of an inclosure of lower roofs or sheds also covered 

 with straw, beneath which the cattle took refuge 

 from the winter storms. Its immense, unpainted 

 gable, cut with holes for the swallows, was like a 

 section of a respectable-sized hill, and its roof like 

 its slope. Its great doors always had a hood pro- 



