416 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE* Part II. 



stack. In the driest seosons, barns are a saving, and, in wet seasons, the ready assistance 

 which they afford, in speedily securing the hay, has been known to make a difference in 

 price of twenty shiUings per load. Many persons, on the other hand, think hay is more 

 apt to heat in a barn than in the open air ; and that they present no advantages which may 

 not be obtained by the canvass stack cover. If they do not possess considerable advan- 

 tages, then the loss must be great, as the erection of such barns is a heavy expense. 



2699. The granary, in barns with threshing machines, is almost always formed imme- 

 diately above the floor on which the machine works; and which, among other advantages, 

 admits raising the corn to it directly from the ground-floor, either by the threshing-mill 

 itself, or a common windlass, easily worked by one man. When it is to be taken out and 

 ,carried to market, it may be lowered down upon carts, with the utmost facility and dispatch. 



There is evidently no greater expense incurred by this arrangement; for the same floor 

 and height of side- walls that must be added to the barn, are required in wJiatever situ- 

 ation the granary may be,- and it possesses several advantages. Owing to its being 

 higher than the adjacent buildings there is a freer circulation of air, and less danger of 

 pilfering, or of destruction by vermin ; the corn may be deposited in it as it is dressed, 

 without being exposed to the weather, while the saving of labor is in most cases 

 considerable. 



2700. The construction of the agricultural granary has in it nothing particular ; being, 

 in fact, only a well ventilated room, where corn is seldom kept more than a month or two, 

 and generally in sacks. 



2701. A detached granary often forms apart of farmeries on a small scale : they should 

 be built with firmness, and well secured from the entrance of vermin. In order to effect 

 this last purpose, they should be raised, by means of stone pillars, about eighteen inches 

 or two feet, and have a frame of some durable wood, with quarterings of timber, so placed 

 as that they may be filled up closely with brickbats, and the inside made secure by being 

 lined with thin boards nailed firmly to the different pieces of quartering. The floors must 

 be made firm, close, and even : the outside may also be covered with boarding, if it be 

 thought necessary, and the roof well tiled. There may be different floors or stories, ac- 

 cording to the room required, 



2702. Of commercial corn granaries, some of the most extensive are in Dantzic. They 

 are seven, eight, or nine stories high, having a funnel in the midst of every floor, to let 

 down the corn from one to another. They are built so securely, that, though every way 

 surrounded with water, the corn contracts no damp, and the vessels have the convenience 

 of coming up to the walls for their lading^ The Russians in the interior of the empire 

 preserve their corn in subterranean granaries, of the figure of a sugar-loaf, wide below, 

 and narrow at top: the sides are well-plastered, and the top covered with stones. They 

 are very careful to have the corn well dried before it is laid into these store- houses, and 

 often dry it by means of ovens, their autumn being too short to effect it sufficiently. 



2703. A granary to preserve com for many years should be a dry cellar, deeply covered 

 with earth; and after the corn is put in, hermetically sealed to exclude heat, air, and 

 moisture, and preclude the possibility of the grain vegetating, or of the existence of 

 insects or vermin. (See 1797.) 



2704. The root-house is used for storing up or depositing potatoes, turnips, carrots, 

 cabbages, or other roots or tops for the winter feed of cattle. It should always join the 

 cattle-sheds, and communicate with them by an inner door that opens into the feeder's 

 walk along the heads of the cattle. The entrance door ought to be so large as to admit 

 a loaded cart. These houses are essentially necessary wherever there is a number of cows 

 or other sorts of cattle to be supported on roots of the carrot, parsnip, turnip, and potatoe 

 kinds, as well as for cabbages, as without them it would not only be inconvenient, but in 

 many cases in severe weather impossible to provide them for the daily supply of such 

 stock. Cabbages should not, however, ever be kept long in houses, as they are very apt 

 to take on the putrid fermentation, and become useless. The master should be careful 

 that the yard-man constantly keeps such places perfectly clean and sweet, in order that 

 the roots may contract no bad smell, as cattle are in many cases extremely nice in their 

 feeding, and when once disgusted with any sort of food, seldom take to it again in a 

 proper manner. 



2705. The steaming-house should be placed next the root-houses for obvious reasons ; 

 and have an inner door communicating with it in a line with the door of the feeder's 

 walk. 



2706. The straw-house or straw -shed, when there is one distinct from the barn, should 

 be placed at the end of the cattle-sheds, opposite to the root-house, and like it should 

 have a cart entrance, and an inner door communicating with the feeder's walk. Straw, 

 however, is often stacked, in preference to placing it in a straw-house, especially when 

 large quantities of corn are threshed at one time. 



2707. Cart-sheds or lodges, for th^ shelter and protection of. carts ox waggons, and 



