BARN. 



Fig. 1. 



In this case the seeds may be 

 thrashed on the raised floor, which 

 must be made strong and well joint- 

 ed, to prevent the dust beating 

 through, and steadied by pillars or a 

 partition below. In small farms, 

 where there is no thrashing machine, 

 this constructit)n is not so advanta- 

 geous, the raised floor being unneces- 

 sary ; still, it would be better not to 

 draw the wagons on the floor. The 

 thrashing floor may be placed at one 

 end of the barn, the wagons unloaded 

 at the other, and the corn deposited 

 between them. 



A common thrashing floor is usu- 

 ally from eighteen to twenty feet 

 long, and from twelve to fourteen 

 wide ; the size must depend on the 

 number of men who thrash at the 

 same time, this operation being more 

 rapidly performed by three or four 

 men, beating in regular time, than if 

 they worked separately. 



Thrashing floors are usually made 

 of stone, brick, oak, or tempered 

 earth. The first are the most dura- 

 ble, and where stone can be obtained 

 at a reasonable price, they are. in the 

 end, the cheapest ; but they are apt 

 to bruise the corn, and on that ac- 

 count are not so generally adopted. 

 Brick floors have the same inconve- 

 nience, besides that of readily imbi- 

 bing moisture, and making the grain 

 feel cold and damp, which diminishes 

 the value of the sample. Earthen 

 floors, when carefully laid, and the 

 materials well incorporated, are both 

 66 



cheap and durable, provided the soil 

 on which they are laid is dry natural- 

 ly or made so artificially. But earth- 

 en floors have always the mconve- 

 nience of wearing into dust of a gritty 

 nature, which, mixing with the corn, 

 deteriorates it, and renders it less fit 

 to be ground into fine flour. Hence, 

 in spite of the first cost and frequent 

 repairs, wood floors are preferred. 

 Some nicety is required in laying 

 floors, that they may not be subject 

 to rapid decay, owing to the confine- 

 ment of moist air below them. The 

 planks should be two inches and a 

 half thick, the edges well joined by 

 dowdling, or •ploughing and tongueing. 

 Dowells are pins of half an inch di- 

 ameter and six inches long, driven 

 three inches deep into holes of the 

 same diameter in the edge of the 

 planks, and received into correspond- 

 ing holes in the adjoining planks, so 

 as to keep them close together and 

 their surfaces even. Ploughing and 

 tongueing is done by means of a 

 groove in each edge, into which a 

 slip of lath is driven, half in each 

 groove. This produces the same ef- 

 fect of joining the planks close, be- 

 sides completely preventing any dust 

 from passing between tlie joints. 

 The planks are driven close by means 

 of wedges, and are laid on sleepers, 

 to which they are fastened by a few 

 iron spikes driven into each, and 

 which rest on a foundation of brick- 

 work, so that the floor is eight or ten 

 inches from the ground. This inter- 



