42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the top of the posts, about four or five feet over the driveway, 

 what is called a mow. There will be a square hole cut through 

 that mow, and you are expected to pitch the hay up through 

 that square hole. What is the object of that thing ? In the 

 first place, it is to store the hay. My shifting platform provides 

 for that. In the next place, it is to make the barn warmer. 

 Fill a barn with hay, and it will be warm enough, I warrant 

 you. But they forget that it weakens the frame. A great 

 building, built without stout walls, a simple framework covered 

 with boards, must have a strong frame. If you leave your 

 posts standing there, with nothing across to support them, how 

 are you going to prevent your barn from spreading ? Imagina- 

 tion ! It is not imagination. One of the best barns I ever 

 knew did spread in that way, so that the tennants came half-way 

 out of the mortices, broke, and down came the whole concern ; 

 it was lucky the owner was not under it. If you want your 

 barn to stand firm as a rock, you must have your plates go right 

 across from one post to another ; then it will hold almost any- 

 thing. That is the general principle. If you want to make 

 your barn firm, and stand for seventy-five years, — if any wooden 

 building can stand so long, — be sure to get rid of this sort of 

 thing, which cuts your barn right through in the middle, and 

 lets the strongest portion down five or six feet from the spot 

 where it ought to be to hold it together. It is simple, too. It 

 costs more to cut a mortice-hole now than it did fifty years ago. 

 These are the reasons why I object to this complicated structure, 

 with a driveway under the roof. 



I have given my objections to keeping cattle in a cellar ; I 

 have provided all the arrangements for horses, cattle, tools, and 

 a granary in this one building, and in such a way that it will 

 be convenient and economical, and furnish at the same time 

 plenty of storage for hay. Now, what will you do with the 

 cellar ? Mr. Moore said he would keep the manure in it. I 

 almost always compost my cow manure, as was recommended 

 by Col. Moses Newell, in a very sensible address, delivered before 

 the Essex Society last year. If you are cultivating clay soils, 

 compost with sand ; if you are cultivating light soils, sandy 

 loam, compost with muck, and so on. You have abundant 

 opportunity to manufacture all that in this cellar. 



Then another thing. There has been some debate as to 



