348 



PREMIUM BARN. 



horses, and sheep, for the greater share of that time 

 under my own immediate charge, and with a Ivnow- 

 ledge of the every day wants of a mixed stoclf, I can 

 not conceive of a plan affording more conveniences 

 at so cheap a cost. For a stocli-breeding farm, a 

 milli, butter, or cheese dairy, for stall-feeding cattle 

 this a.Tangemeut is equally convenient. Cows should 

 be tied up to milk? these stables are just fitted for 

 it. They want e.xtra and separate feeding ? these 

 mangers will accommodate it. Bullocks are to be 

 stall fed? here are stalls, and ample preparation, and 

 storage for all manner of food required. Is a sheep 

 barn wanted? here is abundant storage for their fod- 

 der, and the sheds, which may be extended indefinite- 

 ly, are at hand to house and protect them perfectly. 

 If grain be an object of the farmer, and little stock 

 is kept, the main barn is the thing for it, and the 

 sheds can be left ofi". 



A great merit I consider this plan to have over 

 others is that it contains a fixed principle of con- 

 struction for a barn of any size, larger or smaller. 

 It may be built on a small scale, or it may be much 

 larger than the one submitted. I can see no impor- 

 tant objection to so extensive a range of buildine in 

 connection, except that of fire. In case any part of 

 it should burn, the whole would probably be destroy- 

 ed. Few clusters of farm buildings, indeed, are oth- 

 erwise, and I know of no way to remedy this objec- 

 tion, but to insure; and no man not able to lose his 

 buildings without inconvenience, should neglect in- 

 surance. Besides this, the saving in labor and forage, 

 with such a barn as this, will twice pay the insurance 

 every year. 



The economy of labor in feeding stock in this barn 

 will be seen in the immediate proximity of the forage 

 to the mangers. The long passage down the two 

 sides and at the end, between the main barn and the 

 stables, is used to throw the hay into from the bays, 

 and then it can be forked over at once into the man- 

 gers. Girts are to be framed into the barn posts 

 next the alley to keep the hay in place as it is mowed 

 in from the felds. When the bays are full up to the 

 eaves, a well-hole is to be cut with the hay knife 

 from the top, outside, next to the stables, and longi- 

 tudinally near the center of the bay, far enough down 

 to p-ish the hay into the alley for feeding. This hole 

 is of course to be enlarged as the hay is fed out, and 

 in a little time the whole side will be open. For 

 cutting feed, the area adjoining the main floor, 

 where the cutting-box stands, is convenient to the 

 bays on either side. The granary, over the horse- 

 power, will hold all the ground feed for mixing with 

 the cut forage. 



The lofts over the sheds will hold a large quantity 

 of forage for the cattle or sheep, which may be fed 

 and sheltered there; and as forage of every kind is 

 enough better when sheltered from the weather to 

 pay for such shelter, it should always be stored; and 

 then, in all weathers, the cattle or sheep, dry and 

 comfortable, can eat at their leisure. Step-ladders 

 can be built at convenient places under the sheds to 

 ascend into the lofts. 



It may be objected to putting the stables on the 

 side of the barn, when so frequent a plan is to have 

 them in the body of it, under the bays. The objec- 

 tion to this latter mode is that the stale of the cat> 



tie soon rots the sills, and exposes the whole structure 

 to infirmity, whereas, if the stable sills decay, they 

 may be readily replaced at less expense than the 

 others. Besides this, the convenience of low storage 

 in the bays is great, in the saving of labor, over that 

 of pitching everything so high over head. To this 

 may be added, the whole concern is much warmer, 

 contradicting, in this case at least, the old adage, "as 

 cold as a barn;" and still, perfect ventilation is given 

 through the long ranges of alley all round, and the 

 stable windows. 



PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF MANURE. — Be- 

 lieving that the best application of harn-yard manure 

 on the farm is to get it upon the fields where it is 

 required with the least possible delay after dropped 

 from the cattle, I should require but little shelter for 

 it at the yard. But as both theory and practice dif- 

 fer in this regard, I can suggest no more economical 

 method of protection to it from the weather, than to 

 run sections of the stable roof back sufficiently far 

 to protect, as they are thrown from the windows, the 

 dung heaps from the storms. This may be cheaply 

 done by rafters, say 6 to 10 feet long, according to 

 the extent of protection required, running out just 

 above the dung windows of the stables, and support- 

 ed by braces from the sills, or posts set in the ground 

 at their outer extremities and covered with boards or 

 shingles. Such expense, however, is hardly worth 

 while, if the dung is to be applied in its raw state to 

 the land, as strict economy demands that it be taken 

 unferniented to the ground, where its gasses and 

 ammonia may at once be appropriated to the grow- 

 ing crop; and if composting it he the object, a cov- 

 ered stercorary in the yard, or under the sheds, where 

 it would be already sheltered, is the better plan. In 

 this very place, the theory of composting manures 

 may, in the manner in which it is usually done, in the 

 economy of its preparation and in the efficacy of its 

 benefits, be seriously questioned. Composts are, as 

 the name implies, compositions of various ferlilzing 

 matter, nii.xed in mass, and each acting upon the 

 other by the aid of water and atmospheric air, assist- 

 ed by turning up and mixing, by hand labor, at sun- 

 dry times. They thus decompose and amalgamate 

 their various materials, each into the other, so as to 

 become assimilated into one uniform quality of sub- 

 stance. Now, if the same material in quality and 

 quantity were thrown broadcast upon the soil and 

 plowed or harrowed in, according to the requirement 

 of the crop in hand, where the elements would dis- 

 lodge its ammonia and gasses, while the soil and th« 

 growing crop appropriated them as they passed of^ 

 instead of permitting all this fertilizing matter to es- 

 cape into the atmosphere, as is the case in the work- 

 ings of the compost heap, and leaving a mass of ef- 

 fete matter, by gardeners preeminently called rotted 

 manure, the Ijenefits of such process, to my mind, 

 can admit of little question. The destruction of 

 noxious seeds I conceive to be its chief merit, as that 

 is the first virtue claimed for it by its advocates. 

 But as this is only incidental to the subject of pro- 

 tecting manures, in connection with the plan of barn 

 and stabUng before you, and partly explanatory of 

 this branch of the accommodation required in a 

 complete barn establishment, I will not pursue the 

 discussion. It will be seen that abundant con- 



