1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



339 



far proves sufficient. I defy the art of man, with 

 wood or metal, at any cost, to make a fence so 

 beautiful for a country residence, as a living hedge; 

 and I challenge the world of gardeners to form, by 

 the culture of flowers even, a landscape so perma- 

 nently and satisfactorily lovely, as the quiet, hum- 

 ble grass, on a well-kept lawn. 



For the New England Farmer. 



PRESENT OF A PAPEH-BARNS. 



Mr. Editor : — A few weeks since, I received a 

 number of your paper containing a receipt making 

 me an advance paying subscriber for one year. My 

 prfisent purpose is not the finding out of my friend, 

 who choses to remain incognito. I leave that to 

 time and chance. But I most certainly shall find 

 him out. 



The present of a paper is at once neat, chaste, 

 useful and unexceptionable. Nothing can be more 

 so. It may be received as a gentle hint that a lit- 

 tle more reading may be good for us. That to be 

 a little more intellectual will make us better and 

 more lovable. To a farmer it may intimate that 

 a little more learning is no dangerous thing. That 

 a little more use of books, or even the pen, need 

 not unfit us for using the other implements of our 

 art. 



The JV. E. Farmer on my table, falls into the 

 good company of the Maine Farmer, the Working 

 Farmer, \-c., and no jealousies are yet engendered 

 by the meeting. The elder installed members of 

 the group are not ashamed of the venerable one 

 last in place. Not the least difficulty is apprehen- 

 ded. 



A present of a good paper to a friend is yet too 

 much of a novelty. Such an act has sometimes 

 been perpetrated in Maine, and in no instance, to 

 my knowledge, has the least trouble grown out of 

 it. 



Being a farmer, and I may be allowed to say, 

 something of a reading one — not much of a writing 

 one — I am often sorely tempted to drop in a few 

 words for the papers, when I fancy that the idea in 

 a well-written article might have been carried a 

 little farther with advantage. Though I generally 

 manage to quiet such desires, yet the case has 

 happened where I have indulged a little, and may 

 do so again. 



In No. 10 of the current volume, your corres- 

 pondent, W. 1). B., of Concord, has advanced some 

 just and timely ideas on barns. 



In the planning of all buildings, the mathemati- 

 cal fact should ever be ke])t in our view ; that in 

 economy of outer surface, the form of the square 

 and cube are to be approached. In the ground 

 plan for a barn, if the structure is to be a large one, 

 the best ])ractical width should be selected, which 

 is from 40 to 44 feet ; the best height, which will be 

 found about 20 feet, little more or less ; and ex- 

 tended in length to make your desired dimensions. 

 But the point I wish to make here, is, that mathe- 

 matical fact does not allow the economical builder 

 to stop at the square and the cube, but to reach on- 

 ward to the figure of the circle and the s])here. 



In practice, with the materials mostly in use at 

 present, barns may not readily admit the circular 

 form. But for barns of medium size, we make an 

 approach to the circle by adopting the octagon, 

 which is free from valid objections. 



Let us for a moment compare this form with the 

 square. A barn 30 by 30 feet, 16 feet high, con- 

 tains 14,400 cubic feet ; an octagon of the same sur- 

 face, making 15 feet on each of its 8 sides, same 

 height, encloses 17,385 feet. 



A barn 40 by 40 feet, 20 feet high, contains 32,- 

 000 feet. An octagon, 20 feet sides, same height, 

 38,624 feet. Here we see a clear gain of about 

 one-fifth of the storage capacity. 



For barns of larger dimensions, I have not given 

 this plan much thought. They may be objection- 

 able. For medium size there is no loss in sj)ace or 

 convenience in cattle stalls, but a positive gain. — 

 There is a clear gain in material and labor in the 

 erection of a good, staunch frame, by choosing the 

 octagon over the square. Beams and ])osts inter- 

 nally above the girts and scaffold fiooring are im- 

 necessary. 



I disclaim being a mechanic or the son of a me- 

 chanic ; but could give my private opinion to a me- 

 chanic, on the size and position of every stick of 

 timber in the frame of a moderate sized octagon 

 barn. Say a barn with storage for twenty to thirty 

 tons of haj'. 



That such a barn is convenient and just the 

 thing, I have daily, actual, positive proof. 



Yours sincerely, c. C. 



Foxcroft, Maine, March 11th, 1856. 



REFRIGERATION. 



We are glad to learn that this safe and almost 

 painless anesthetic agent is rapidly gaining favor 

 among surgeons. By freezing the part, more or less, 

 according to the case, many of the minor surgical 

 operations, such as the removal of tumors, the ex- 

 traction of teeth, the destruction of morbid growths 

 and abnormal surfaces, can be performed with al- 

 most entire immunity from suffering, and with none 

 of the danger attending the use of chloroform. 



One of our city dentists is now extracting teeth 

 in this way, to the great delight of those who have 

 not the fortitude to endure pain, and who fear 

 chloroform and other narcotic anesthetics. Noth- 

 ing is easier than the application of the freezing 

 mixture. Two parts of snow or pounded ice to one 

 part of common table salt, makes a convenient frig- 

 orific. The ingredients may be mixed and placed 

 In a Unen rag, a piece of fine gauze, or a bladder, 

 or in a hollow brass ball constructed so as to fit the 

 part or surface, and held in contact a few minutes, 

 or until the requisite degree of congelation has ta- 

 ken place. The gums are so thin that they are 

 frozen by a few moments' application, when the 

 rotten tooth, decayed stump, offending prong, or 

 other remnant of odontology, may be taken out 

 before the gums recover their sensibility. As many 

 deaths have occurred in persons apparently in good 

 health, while under the influence of chloroform, 

 for the purpose of having a tooth extracted, we 

 commend this plan to all who have teeth to be 

 pulled, or who defight in dental surgery. — Water 

 Cure Journal. 



Cough in Horses. — We once had a horse that 

 had caught a bad cold, and coughed so severely that 

 he could be heard half a mile. All sorts of reme- 

 dies were proposed — enough we should think to 

 kill any good horse outright. These remedies were 

 all rejected, although some might have proved use- 

 ful, and the following course pursued. The horse 



