224 



Farm Buildings^ — Manures, SfC. 



Vol. Iir. 



For the Farmors' Cabinet. 



Farm IS2aildiiig§— ^Manures, &c. 



Mr. Editor, — People generally are fond of 

 their own performances, and arc mostly sat- 

 isfied with their limited knowledirn. Im- 

 provement is now tlie order of the day ; and I 

 am happy to perceive that the cultivation of 

 the earth, and the conveniences of buildin^y 

 necessary to econoinize in labor, and afford 

 greater comfort and security in the returns of 

 industry, are beginning to receive more atten- 

 tion, than in years past. The second number 

 of the third volume of the Farmers' Cabinet, 

 contains a description, with several illustra- 

 tions, of a Philadelphia county barn — large 

 and convenient in an eminent degree — and as 

 it has not been followed by a description of 

 any other, I have tiiought proper (to please 

 myself) to give you an account of a tarn I 

 built in the year 1823. 



My brotlier, residing in New Garden town- 

 ship, had erected a barn commonly called a 

 "double decker." I asked him how he liked 

 it. He replied, that if he had occasion to 

 build again he would draw m^ his. produce 

 rather than pilch it. Improving on this hint, 

 my course was taken. I had a good barn fif- 

 ty-five feet long, and twenty-five wide, with 

 a hay house and stable for six oxen adjoining 

 the east end. The stabling with an overshot 

 of seven feet, held, by tying up, nineteen head 

 of cattle and horses; sufficiently large for the 

 farm when I went to reside on it, thirty years 

 ago. I purchased a limestone quarry, dis- 

 tant about two miles, and the expense of 

 liming my land, put me to the additional 

 expense of enlarging my barn, f sunk then 

 in front of my barn as it stood, fit\een feet, it 

 being a rise of ground, and a swamp meadow 

 below ; the sand that I dug out I put on the 

 meadow below, after under draining it, and 

 filling the ditches with stone. I took the roof 

 off the old barn and built an addition of stone 

 work so as to measure (the old and new) one 

 hundred feet. I put no stabling under the 

 new building, but left it sixty by fifty-five feet 

 as a dung house and barn yard, with two large 

 gateways; it being sufficient to hold thirty 

 head of cattle ; and twenty-five head of cattle 

 and horses above in the old barn, and the new 

 part is a dung house for the cattle above, so 

 that no dung is exposed outside of a roof. — 

 As the dung is taken out of the stables it is 

 carefully spread under the cattle, or it would 

 immediately heat, and the effluvia become 

 very offensive. By its being carefully mixed 

 with the litter and trampled hard, it undergoes 

 a chemical change, that preserves its prop- 

 erties and qualities as a manure, differing as 

 much as a cheese does by tlie process of ri- 

 pening. It has a powerful effect on the 

 eenses. It is taken out in the fall after 



being secured under a roof, with large open- 

 ings of gateways ten feet wide, where carta 

 may be loaded and drawn away without its 

 becoming wet. One pair of oxen will take 

 a greater bulk than two in the common way. 



I now proceed to give a description of draw- 

 in? up. We go in at the gable end of the build- 

 ing above the square ; the floor in the middle 16 

 feet wide through the old barn; then spreads or 

 squares out 28 feet, as the barn is long ; and a 

 floor going across would require great labor to 

 pass the hay or grain to the ends of the barn 

 this way, the hay isdelivered in the middle of 

 the movv' all round by drawing in carts ; and by 

 turning the tail to the mow you tilt the hay 

 in the middle of it. The posts that sup- 

 port the upper floor are 16 feet apart, and 

 the upper floor being 28 feet wide, the hay is 

 delivered in the middle of the mow ; and as 

 that floor is 2-5 feet above the joist, 200 loads 

 of hay might be tilted in by a boy well skilled 

 in driving the cart ; the part under the wide 

 floor and between the posts that support the 

 ffoor is the straw house. 



My mode of making hay is to cut it when 

 it has arrived at full growth, taking care the 

 rnower don't turn up the buts, but let it lay 

 as though it was cradled, which is the only 

 way to let grass lay till it is cured ; laying in 

 that way it takes no wet, and retains its juices, 

 and is rich and sweet. When your hay is 

 dry on the top, and the ground dry between the 

 swaths, go out about ten o'clock and turn ; by 

 twelve begin to haul where you turned first 

 with a horse rake ; and with five hands and 

 two or three carts you can put in your barn in 

 this way fifteen or twenty tons of hay ; none 

 of the hands being required at the barn but the 

 boy that drives. Several can drive in, one 

 after another, if there is appearance of rain. 

 In the common way your hands lose time in 

 going and coming with the carts, and the 

 length of time in pitchingoff makes your tak- 

 ing your hay in, tedious and uncertain; as in 

 harvest every thing requires despatch, to save 

 what the earth in its liberality be.«tows. I am 

 afraid you will think me too proli.x, but all 

 the advantages ought to be put in a fiiir way, 

 to carry out the principle and economy, as 

 great advantage results in the improvement 

 of the soil, the properties of the manure, the 

 preservation of those salts, be tliey what 

 they may, that operate to double or I 

 think treble its value. I am only speaking 

 from facts from the prmhictof the soil ; it is 

 known that land of a common good quality 

 will not bring a good crop of wheat without 

 manure, therefore manure in this country is 

 bonum mas;num of all our exertions. One 

 thing, of great importance, is the change it 

 undergoes during the heat of summer, in the 

 process of its chemical change. I likewise can 

 say that I have missed no wheat crop ever since 





