164 T3UREAU COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



this plan in my stable for six cows, but it is applicable to any 

 length or number. 



YARD FOR WINTERING STALLION. 



To enable and to ensure my Norman stallion having 

 proper exercise, and mostly to take care of himself when idle, 

 I constructed a yard forty-eight by seventy-two feet, on the 

 west side of the barn, which constitutes one of the forty-eight 

 feet sides. The posts for this yard are nine and one-half feet 

 long, and inserted three and one-half feet in the ground. On the 

 inside are notched three two by six horizontal joists, properly 

 spaced, and it is tightly boarded up and down with eight foot 

 boards. In one corner is constructed a stable, by using a few 

 extra longer posts to give proper slant to the roof which slants 

 outward, and this stable has a door opening into the yard. 

 One corner of the yard comes up to the stable door of the 

 barn. . By means of a " switch gate," (which constitutes the 

 entrance to the yard,) this yard can be made to communicate 

 only with the stable, but when opened wider, it connects with 

 the space outside. 



The " switch gate " is sixteen feet long and eight feet 

 high, so boarded as to correspond with the fence. The ends of 

 its frame are timbers six by six, and these connected by three 

 horizontal pieces two by six ; and braced with two pieces of 

 the same size. It is hung by a hook and eye at the top, and 

 rests at the bottom on an iron gudgeon working in a hole 

 drilled into a stone for a foundation. The end of the frame 

 where the gudgeon is inserted, is banded with an iron ring. 

 The moving end of the gate rests on a friction wheel about a 

 foot in diameter, so framed into the end piece as to roll on a 

 track of plank in moving the gate. This gate on closing is 

 made to self fasten by means of a "catch" on a long and 

 strong spring attached to the barn. This " catch " is made to 

 open by means of a lever on either side of the gate, and on 

 the inside is a bail or handle for convenience of closing the 

 gate from that side. If two or more animals of this kind are 

 to be provided for, this yard may be made useful by giving it to 



