796 TBE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



cart, and the manure could be taken directly from the stable to 

 the fields. This would save much labor in handling the manure. 

 I saw at Elgin, 111., a dairy-barn, in which sixty cows were kept, 

 that was arranged in this way. 



Where a large lot of cattle are to be foddered in the barn, 

 the arrangements for getting the rough feed to them should be 

 as convenient as possible. If hay or fodder for thirty head of 

 cattle must be forked down a narrow hole, and then lifted three 

 or four feet and crowded into a narrow manger, and this repeated 

 three times a day for many months, it involves a large amount 

 of hard work. 



The most convenient method of feeding that I have ever 

 seen, is to arrange the stables around the barn-floor so that the 

 cattle stand two and a half or three feet lower than the floor, 

 and eat directly from it. With such an arrangement there will 

 be no lifting of hay or fodder, but with a rake or fork it can be 

 pushed to the cattle. If building a cattle-barn, I should adopt 

 this plan, as I think it would be both convenient and economical. 

 The loft-floors above the cattle should be dropped as low as 

 could be done without detriment, so as to give the room above 

 for storage ; and if the cattle stood three feet lower than the 

 barn-floor, the loft-floors need only be raised four feet above the 

 level of the former, to give a ceiling seven feet high in the 

 cattle stable, which would be ample, as there would be a supply 

 of air from the barn-floor. The grain or meal can be fed directly 

 on the barn-floor by fastening a narrow board eighteen inches 

 from the edge of the floor to prevent it being pushed beyond 

 their reach. A strong board, six inches wide, will be needed at 

 the edge of the barn-floor to prevent the cattle from pulling the 

 hay or fodder under foot. If the cattle are fed in a basement, 

 and a manger used for fodder, I would make it wide enough so 

 that a man could walk through it comfortably carrying a bundle 

 of fodder, or with his arms full of corn-buts. If the studding 

 on the side next the cattle lean a little towards them, I think 

 two feet is wide enough at the bottom. 



I do not like feed boxes in the manger, as they are in the 

 way, and the cattle, if fed meal, will always waste more or less, 



