DAIRY BUrLDINGS. 113 



the manure in a cellar; and poultry kept in manure are 

 not fit food for a civilized being. 



A cellar should be built firmly and neatly. If stone is 

 used it should be well laid m lime mortar, and the spaces 

 well filled with broken fragments. Care is to be taken 

 to have no burrowing places for rats and mice, and one 

 excellent feature of a good cellar is that it serves as an 

 entire defence against the assaults of these vermm upon 

 the stable and barn above it. The beams and joists are 

 well hidden in the wall, and the floor above is laid close 

 down upon the wall plate, which is a three-inch plank 

 bedded in the mortar, and upon which the posts and 

 studding of the frame of the stable rest and are spiked. 

 The stable floor comes up snugly to this plate, and so 

 leaves no crevice through which a mouse could force 

 itself. As the barn above the stable has a tight floor, 

 there is no chance for mice to get up there, and any one 

 which by chance gets in the stable is soon captured by 

 the well-fed cats, which have their home in the stable 

 and get regular rations of milk twice a day. Lastly, it 

 is advisable to make the corners of the cellar of dressed 

 stone, and lay them up with care, as these are usually 

 the first part of a cellar wall to give out, and are the 

 most important. 



Stable for a Family Cow.— Where but one cow is 

 kept the stable may be located conveniently near the 

 house if desired, because a well-kept stable will never be *^ 

 disagreeable in any way to the most fastidious house- 

 keeper. Therefore I would have the stable for a family 

 cow near the house, and not a hundred feet distant. It 

 may be made to include a wood-house, a store-room, a 

 dairy room and a garden tool house. It should be 

 located upon rising ground, or so that water flows every 

 way from it. The water from the roof should flow into 

 a cistern, which will supply all the water needed. 



The stable should have an upper loft for hay and a 



