126 



FARM-BUILDINGS. 



them than full exposure, or lying under an open 

 shed. 



If you would suffer your cattle to choose for them- 

 selves, you would find them, nine times in ten, prefer- 

 ring an open shed to a close barn. Cattle should.be 

 protected from the ivinds and from the ivet : they are 

 not in fear of cold weather; and, if your barn faces 

 south or east, you need not board up the south side 

 below the floor, but let your cattle lie loose under that 

 part of the barn where there is no hay. If you have 

 two barns, these will protect the cattle from the north 

 and the west winds. If you have but one, a slight 

 shed may be built, of the length of your cow-yard, as 

 a protection and shelter. When building, the cost of 

 a cellar that shall be Availed up on two sides will be 

 but trifling to a farmer who hires by the month, and 

 has rocks and a team of his own. Cattle kept in this 

 way can lie down with ease ; their manure does not 

 adhere to their sides, for they choose the cleanest 

 places ; they rise with ease ; they relish their food 

 much better, eating in the yard what they had already 

 blown upon when in the barn ; their manure is worth 

 a vast deal more, for much of it is trodden down out of 

 the way of daily freezing and thawing, and all the 

 liquid part is preserved ; then, if you have proper racks, 

 it is not half the labor to tend them ; and the milk is 

 much cleaner. 



Tight-boarded barns require you to dry your hay 

 much longer than barns covered with boards not joint- 

 ed ; otherwise it will grow musty. The difference, 

 we think, may be one whole hour in the drying ; and 

 one additional hour's drying will often cost you one 

 more opening of your hay, and sometimes a dripping 

 to boot. 



Board your barns, therefore, with square-edged 

 boards, and neither joint nor match them. Hay wants 

 a little crevice to let off the steam, as well as corn in 

 the crib, and will be as much sweeter in spring as tha 



