PLAN OF A BARN. 239 



if you please, which may be unyoked, or unharnessed, and enter 

 this passage from tlie room for tools, wagons, &c. This room 

 runs the entire length of the barn and in front and north of the 

 cow stalls ; a portion of it may be one story in height, forming 

 a lean-to corresponding with one on the opposite end of the barn ; 

 from which room all of the cow cribs can be examined by means 

 of a slide door on their backs, and at which they may be fed 

 with any thing desired ; also, these doors may be left open if it 

 is desired to ventilate. From the passage at the foot of the 

 stairs we will pass into this room for the reception of tools and 

 wagons. At each end of this room, on the east and west ends 

 of the barn, is a large door for ingress and egress. By the east 

 door of this room is a door leading into a passage by the cow 

 lean to ; this passage is immediately under where we first entered 

 the barn, and runs south by the east wall. Passing down this 

 passage we come at the door for receiving the cows from the 

 barnyard. The yard comes up to the graded way that leads to 

 the floor above. Here, by this door and from a reservoir which 

 serves to fill and make up this graded way, you may water your 

 stock at pleasure, without the aid of pump or bucket, but by 

 simply letting the water run which you have collected from the 

 roof of the barn, as they say that during the year the rain will 

 cover it thirty-six inches deep. This water we propose to retain 

 in two reservoirs, one at each end of the barn, in graded or 

 raised ways to the hay-loft floor. The oxen or horses can be let 

 into the barnyard, to come at water at this place, from their 

 stalls, by means of a door entering the yard at the south end 

 of their lean to. 



Having shown how to store the hay and tend the creatures, 

 we propose to pass now to the consideration of preserving and 

 making manure. 



Here let me say, in the language of the poet, 



Though our store of wealth is small, 

 'Tis prudence to enjoy it all. 



All, therefore, both liquid and solid, that we can, it is best to 

 retain for use. I, therefore, propose a vault, four feet or more 

 in depth below this floor, cemented on the bottom and sides 

 with water cement, into which shall fall all the liquid and solid 

 manure ; and there to retain its essential parts by means of 



