BARN. 



BARN. A building in which prod- 

 uce is stored to protect it from the 

 •weather and keep it in safety. In all 

 countries where the climate does not 

 permit the corn to be thrashed in the 

 field and immediately put into a gran- 

 ary, it is necessary to protect it 

 from the w-eather ; and the most ob- 

 vious method is, to hare capacious 

 buildings for that purpose. Accord- 

 ingly, all well-appointed farms hare 

 one or more of these buildings, which 

 formerly were made of such dimen- 

 sions as to be capable of containing 

 the whole produce of tiie farm, wheth- 

 er hay, corn, or straw. A great sa- 

 ving has been effected by the mode 

 of stacking hay and corn in the open 

 air, protected only by a slight cover- 

 ing of thatch. In consequence of 

 this improved practice, modern barns 

 are made of smaller dimensions, and 

 their prmcipal use is to contain the 

 wheat in the straw which is mtended 

 to be thrashed out immediately ; so 

 that if the barn is capable of contain- 

 ing a thrashing floor and as much 

 wheat in the sheaf as is usually put in 

 a single stack, it answers all the pur- 

 poses of a larger barn ; and thus the 

 expense of the farm buildings is great- 

 ly diminished. 



The principal use of a barn being 

 to thrash the corn in, its construction 

 must be adapted to the mode in which 

 that operation is performed. As many 

 smaller seeds, such as clover and the 

 grasses, cannot so well be thrashed 

 by a machine, a floor, upon which 

 they may be thrashed with the flail, 

 is an indispensable appendage to a 

 farm ; and the barn is the most con- 

 venient place to have it in. This floor 

 is commonly placed in the middle, 

 with its length equal to the width of 

 the barn. It also allows the wagons 

 or carts, when loaded with the prod- 

 uce of the harvest, or of the corn 

 taken from a stack, to be drawn over 

 it and unloaded immediately in the 

 barn. I'or this purpose, large double 

 gates are placed at each end of the 

 floor, of such dimensions as to allow 

 a loaded wagon to be drawn in on 

 one side, and, when unloaded, taken 

 out at the other. When the width 



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of the barn is not sufficient for tha 

 length of the floor, a porch is added 

 on one side, or both, and in these the 

 gates are placed. Those parts of the 

 barn which are on one side of the 

 thrashing floor are called the bays, 

 and in these the corn is placed till it 

 is thrashed. Wiiere there are porch- 

 es, the roof of the barn is generally 

 brought down to the line of the porch ; 

 and thus convenient sheds are formed 

 on each side. One of the defects of 

 this construction is, that the drawing 

 of loaded wagons on the floor mate- 

 rially injures it, even where the pre- 

 caution is taken of spreading straw 

 over it. In consequence of this, many 

 barns have been constructed without 

 the large gates, and the corn is thrown 

 from the wagon outside, through an 

 opening called a pitch hole, into the 

 barn. This has the inconvenience of 

 loss of time, and the risk of damaging 

 the corn in showery weather. The 

 best plan, therefore, is to have a 

 passage for the wagons under the 

 roof, at the end of the barn, where 

 they can with ease and safety be un- 

 loaded ; and if a thrashing machine 

 is used, a floor raised about seven 

 feet above the ground will contain 

 the machine at one end, and the un- 

 thrashed corn at the other : the low- 

 er part may be appropriated to va- 

 rious useful purposes ; that part which 

 is immediately under the machine 

 receives the corn and straw after 

 they are separated, and contains the 

 winnowing machine. (See Fig. I.) 

 A, the place for unloading the corn ; 

 B, a floor seven feet from the ground, 

 on which the wheat in the straw is 

 stored ; C, the place of the thrash- 

 ing-machine at the end of the floor ; 



D, a chamber under the floor, into 

 which the thrashed corn and the 

 straw fall, and the corn is winnowed ; 



E, the shed for the horses to work 

 under ; F, a place under the floor, in 

 which agricultural implements are 

 kept ; it may be converted into a sta- 

 ble. Double gates at each end of A 

 will shut the whole up ; or the end B 

 may be closed by a partition with 

 double doors in it. The windows are 

 latticed. 



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