50 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



A SPLENDID BARN. 



Few farmers can atl'ord to erect a building equal 

 to the one tliey plan, and still fewer build one 

 like that described below. Still we publish a 

 description of it, because he who cannot obtain 

 all its advantages, may secure a part. Perhaps 

 some of them can be provided for in those already 

 occupied. We ask special attention to the manner 

 of seeding. The description was given as appears 

 below, hy a corresi)ondent of the Rural New- 

 Yorker. 



The barn belongs to David Leavitt, Esq., a 

 merchant prince of New York city, who has a 

 farm in Great Barrington, Mass., pleasantly loca- 

 ted upon the Ilousatonic. 



It IS 200 feet in length, with a centre wing on 

 the east side, three stories high, with an arched 

 roof covered with tin, and a cupola on the centre, 

 and erected at an expense of nearly $20,000. It 

 is based in a ravine which it spans, thus affording 

 an easy entrance into the third story. Through 

 this ravine runs a durable stream, with which is 

 formed a beautiful reservoir of water directly above 

 the barn, that operates upon a wheel twenty feet 

 in diameter, thus forming an excellent motive 

 power that is used for a great variety of purposes, 

 such as sawing wood and lumber, threshing, clean- 

 ing, and elevating the grain, cutting straw and 

 stalks, unloading hay, depositing it in any desired 

 loft, churning, grinding, &c. 



The first story is used as a manure vault ; the 

 third for grain, hay, and apartments for domestics. 

 The arrangement for feeding the cattle is most 

 ingenious and convenient, the following descrip- 

 tion of which I give in the language of Mr. 

 Wilkinson : — 



" All the manual labor required in feeding the 

 cattle is to run a car which contains 25 bushels of 

 feed before the line of cattle, and shovel the food 

 into the feeding boxes, which are of cast iron, 

 quadrant shaped, of about 100 bushels' capacity, 

 and one to each stall. The boxes are placed one 

 on each side of a partition, that divides two stalls, 

 and are each attached at the right angle corner of 

 the box to the front partition stud by hinges, so 

 that the boxes may be swung around into the feed- 

 ing hall, in front of the cattle, and over the feeding 

 car, that the seed which spills in filling the boxes, 

 may fall into the car instead of on the Hoor. After 

 the boxes are filled, they are turned with a slight 

 touch before the cattle again. In the centre, be- 

 tween the next or adjoining pair of stalls, is an 

 erect cylinder, two feet in diameter at the top, 

 which projects equally into each stall, and extends 

 from about a horizontal line with the tops of the 

 feed boxes (on the opposite side of the stalls,) to 

 the upper surface of the hay-loft directly over the 

 cattle, that it may be filled irom the fioor. There 

 is a circular aperture, six inches in diameter, in 

 each side of the hay tubes, at a convenient height 

 from the floor, so that two animals may eat from 

 the same tube at the same time. Under the tube 

 is a drawer into which all the loose hay seed falls 

 through its latticed bottom, which drawer when 

 full is emptied, and when a large quantity of seed 

 accumulates it is cleaned for use or market. The 

 seed obtained is of a superior quality, and the 

 quantity ordinarily saved by this arrangement, 

 will pay for all the manual labor required about 

 the building throughout the year. 



Aci'oss the front of the stalls there is also an 



extraordinary box manger, directly under which, 

 and running the whole length of the stable, is a 

 trough of water, with suitable openings in the 

 bottom of the manger, through which cattle may 

 be watered by removing the iron slides, and which 

 is done by the means of a lever opening the line 

 of slides at once. 



The very great economy and convenience of 

 this arrangement are obvious at a glance, and may 

 be taken as a specimen of the j)erfection exhibited 

 throughout. Under one of the drive-ways into 

 the third story, is an arched room, well ventilated, 

 and lighted with a glass front, which is used as a 

 milk-room, and has a great many conveniences 

 connected with it for "diminishing the labor of 

 taking care of the dairy, which can all be per- 

 formed without the least exposure to the weather, 

 within the compass of a few feet. The herd is 

 fed with hay, cut feed and steamed roots, that are 

 reduced to a pulp by the revolution of a cylinder 

 in which the roots are placed after steaming, with 

 four cannon balls of two pounds each, and I 

 believe during the summer season the boiling 

 system is to be practiced in part. The building 

 is well lighted and ventilated, so that no diseases 

 are generated by confinement or impure air and 

 deleterious gases, an important feature that is too 

 often overlooked. 



On the side of the barn facing the Housatonic, 

 which is but a few hundred feet distant, are 

 projections of cut stone, so arranged as to convert 

 the water which falls over them into a sheet of 

 foam, from which it justly derives its name of 

 " Cascade Barn." — Plow and Anvil. 



AGRICULTUEAL ADDRESSES. 

 Mk. Fay's Address in Essex. 



We had the pleasure of listening to this plain, 

 practical and instructive production, at Lawrence, 

 at the last Exhibition in Essex county ; and now 

 we give several extracts that the reader may 

 judge for himself. Mr. Fay indulges in no flights 

 of oratory or fancy, but pursues the even tenor of 

 his way with a good sound common sense, and on 

 topics of utility. He has not set up images of 

 straw to display his skill in knocking them down ; 

 nor is there any strained effort to bring in the 

 observations he made when abroad, on subjects of 

 no use at home ; nor does he run into sublimated 

 refinements of science — but tells us how common 

 labor may be done in a common way. 



If more of our learned men would imitate his 

 example, and tell us what they know and no more, 

 we should be much better instructed. But we 

 are keeping the reader too long from the extracts 

 we wish to present. 



FARM WORK IS DRUDGERY, UNLESS THE MIND 

 IS IN IT. 



Our farms have ceased to be a favorite scene of 

 labor to our young men, because the work to be 

 performed is mere drudgery, without pleasure or 

 excitement to the mind, but full of weariness to 

 the body. If, however, you will bring to the farm 

 the steam engine or horse power, and the various 

 implements they put in motion, our childi-en will 



