THE BARN AND BARN-YARD. 



wheat-straw, when fed in connection with grain, has more than 

 half the feeding value of average hay. On many farms it is left 

 in the field, or is so poorly stacked as to be of little value. It 

 should also be so arranged as to afford shelter as well as food. 

 Our engraving shows a good, cheap, and strong rack for 

 stacking. There should be two of them, a suitable distance 

 apart^ to hold the straw. The forks should be of durable wood, 

 and well set in the ground, and the poles strong. The sloping 

 uprights should not be laid close together, but should be ten 

 inches apart, so that the cattle can get enough straw through to 

 eat and bed themselves. One upright at each end should be 

 fastened to the 

 pole at the upper 

 end, and sunk 

 in the ground at 

 the bottom, or 

 the cattle will be 



likely to push it UACK FOK STACKING STUAW. 



down when the pressure of the straw is removed. A stack of 

 good straw in the barn-yard is a great comfort to the stock, as 

 they will pull down enough to keep the yard dry and comfort- 

 able, and none of the droppings, either liquid or solid, will be 

 lost in a yard well bedded. 



The barn-yard should always be so arranged that no water 

 can flow into it from adjoining land. If from the natural slope 

 of the land there is danger of this, good surface ditches should 

 be made on the upper side to carry the water around it. If 

 the barn-yard is on flat land, it will pay to raise it a foot or 

 more by plowing and scraping from the land adjoining, for if 

 this is not done in a few years the barn-yard will be lower than 

 the general level, and thus receive the drainage and be likely 

 to become a mud-hole. With a barn-yard of such a size that 

 every foot of it is covered with some good absorbent, and so 

 made that there shall be no drainage either to or from it, and 

 the manure managed as described in Chapter IV, there need be 

 but little waste of fertilizers on the farm. 



In the cattle chapter I speak of the manure ditch and the 



