370 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



see enveloped by their foliage and flowers. The 

 expense for the materials ox this structure is com- 

 ])aratively small, though the time taken in nailing 

 on the strips was considerable. Still I have felt 

 amply remunerated for the outlay, the house hav- 

 ing stood two years, without needing repairs. A 

 rustic seat in the interior will complete the work, 

 where, Mr. Editor, when you visit me of a summer 

 day, we will sit and talk over the past exploits of 

 farming, and the future prospects of this healthful 

 if not profitable occupation. 



But as to summer-houses. I must say that in 

 any garden, ])retentious or unpretentious, they 

 should not be made, as they too often are, of strips 

 of board planed and painted and finished off with 

 as much exactness and nicety as a dwelling-house. 

 They have more the marks of art than is in keep- 

 ing with the garden. Here the trees, the shrubs, 

 the plants, have all the irregular aspect that nature 

 gives them. But if you choose to cut and shape 

 these into pyramids, and other artistic forms, then 

 you may make your summer-house to correspond, 

 and yourself wear a bob wig, three-cornered hat, 

 and breeches with knee-buckles, when you walk or 

 work among them. 



Yours truly, Allen W. Dodge. 



Hamilton, Feb. 4, 1855. 



Remarks. — Capital suggestions, these. And 

 when did his pen ever write, that he did not make 

 such ? "We consider your "when you visit me," as 

 a bona fide invitation, and shall appear to you at 

 the earliest opportunity. 



J''or the Netc England Fanner. 



BARNS. 



Mr. Brown :— I am glad to see that vou pro- 

 pose adding still further to the interest and value 

 of the Farmer, by publishing some plans for good 

 barns. This Winter, a good many of your readers 

 are making preparations to build in the Spring, no 

 doubt, and any hints of a practical character may 

 save them money. 



Hoping before I am many years older to occupy 

 a better barn than I now do, I have had my atten- 

 tion particularly directed to this subject, and have 

 been into a good many fine barns. I need not go 

 out of town, as you "very well know, sir, to find 

 them. And lundertake to say that the exception 

 is not known in Concord, where a judicious outlay 

 for a spacious, convenient barn, has not been fol- 

 lowed by unmistakable evidence of thrift about the 

 whole j^remises. 



Those who build now, are prettly generally 

 agreed upon one point ; that it is more econoni- 

 ical to build one building for the various farm pur- 

 poses, rather than the great number which are 

 seen so common about old establishments. 



Let us look at a few figures, which won't lie. A 

 building ten feet square contains one thousand cu- 

 bic feet. Not to speak of the roof, the outside pre- 

 sents a surface to the weather of four hundred feet. 

 we have, then, ten feet inside, to four feet outside.' 



Take another examj)lc. A building twenty feet 

 square contains eight thousand cubic feet; the out- 

 side measures one thousand six hundred feet. Here 

 we have five feet inside to one foot outside. We 

 , will now take a building forty feet square. The in- 

 side to the outside is as ten to one! 



I am aware that the larger structure requires a 

 heavier frame, that is all. The boards and shingles 

 are the same in either case. I know, too, that the 

 wide roof is worn by rain. That objection, however, 

 is not of great weight. 



1 hold, Mr. Brown, that one part of a large barn 

 accommodates another part. It is a saving of steps 

 to have your horse near the vehicle to which you 

 wish to attach him. Why go several rods to a ten- 

 footer, and open another set of doors in the wind 

 to "get out the chaise ?" What comfort, in return- 

 ing from market or town-meeting on a stormy day, 

 and driving into a snug floor-wa}-, there to untackle 

 and put away horse and wagon, with ease and expe- 

 dition. There is no difficulty in dispensing with the 

 carriage house ; the barn is the place for all the ve- 

 hicles, the cellar takes in all the carts, and coarse 

 wagons — a room at the side of the drive- way, the 

 lighter vehicles. 



Then what need is there for a separate building 

 for tools ; what place so central as an ample room 

 by the side of the floorway 2 You start from the 

 barn, usually, to go to different parts of the farm, 

 and you return thither after the work is done. 



I have thought, Mr. Brown, that portalile bins 

 for corn might be put up in this large tool-room. 

 \n the busy season of the year, corn-bins are apt to 

 get pretty low, so they would not be in the way 

 much when the tools were most used. I should 

 prefer that the bins be where they could be seen to 

 often. One might stand a better chance then of 

 keeping the rats from destroying the corn. I have 

 little faith in these out-of-the-way places to keep 

 corn, it is sure to waste and injure. 



In conclusion, may I ask those readers of the 

 Farmer who have had experience, if apples can be 

 kept through the winter in a part of the barn-cel- 

 lar, without being tainted by the manure in the vi- 

 cinity ? 'What does Mr. Alorrison, of Somerville, 

 say ? w. D. 13. 



Concord, Mass., Jan., 1856. 



Remarks. — Excellent — we regret that it got out 

 of sight and has been postponed so long. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SCYTHE AND MACHINE MOWING. 



Father Buckminster is down upon the mowing 

 machines. What ails the man ? He seems to think 

 scythe mowing as cheap as machine ; and so far as 

 the past is concerned, he mai/ not be far from right; 

 but it cannot be so with the future. The machines 

 we must have. Any machine, which, in our hur- 

 ried climate, substitutes brute for human labor, ic 

 the months of May, June and July, must be cher- 

 ished. If a mowing machine will cut the grass as 

 well and cheaply as the scythe, we should say of it 

 as Patrick Henry did of the war, — "Let it come ;" 

 because it eases the severity of summer labor. 



But more is to be expected. It will do the work 

 cheaper and better, after a few more such years as 

 the past has bqen, for im])roving the machines. It 

 probably does it cheaper already. At least such is 

 the opinion of many who have used it ; and not a 

 few who have tried it two or three years, declare 

 that although a good mower will excel it in the 

 goodness of the work, yet it already does its work 

 better than the majority of such hands as can be 

 hu-ed. J. A. N. 



