860 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



CONCRETE FEEDING FLOORS AND BARNYARD 

 PAVEMENTS. 



The saving principle of feeding floors has long been 

 recognized by successful breeders and feeders of live 

 stock. The trouble, heretofore, has been to obtain an 

 entirely satisfactory material for floor construction. 



Wooden floors kept the feed out of the mud and 

 dust and not only saved every particle of grain, but also 

 prevented wheezing coughs and otherwise temporarily 

 improved the health of the animal. However, in a short 

 time, the best wooden floors rotted out and became in- 

 fected with disease germs. Often floors had to be burned 

 to free the farm of hog cholera. 



In concrete the farmer and ranchman have found an 

 ideal floor material. Such floors not only effect a saving 

 in feed, a shortening in the time of fattening and a de- 

 crease in labor, but also afford perfect protection to the 

 health of the animal. Concrete floors do not soak up 



Illustration Showing Fattening Hogs on Floor. 



water and therefore cannot become infected with disease- 

 germs. Their surfaces can be easily cleaned and thor- 

 oughly disinfected with oils and dips. Rats cannot nest 

 under them. Careful tests have shown that concrete 

 floors, "through the saving of grain and manure alone, pay 

 for themselves in the short period of one year. 



Feeding floors are merely several sidewalks laid side 

 by side, and the same general rules of construction apply 

 to them. Choosing a site in the lot where the ground is 

 slightly sloping, well drained and wind-protected, and con- 

 venient to feed and water. 



Excavate to a depth of 12 inches for the drainage 

 foundation, and around the outside edges of the entire 

 floor dig a trench 12 inches wide and 18 inches deep. 

 (This trench, filled with concrete, prevents hog wallows 

 from undermining the floor and keeps the rats from 

 nesting under it.) Fill all of this space (except the trench) 

 to the natural ground level with well tamped coarse 

 gravel, crushed rock, tile culls or brickbats. This fill 

 forms the drainage foundation as for sidewalks. 



The floor must be graded or sloped so that water 

 will not collect on it in the winter and so that the manure 

 washings may be caught by the gutters and run to the 

 water-tight concrete manure pit. (To shape the gutter, 

 make a mold or templet by rounding the corners on the 

 flat side of a 6-foot length of 4 by 6-inch timber.) A 

 gentle slope, toward the low corner, of y% to ^A of an 

 inch for each foot of length or width is sufficient. This 

 is secured by the use of a heavy grade stake at each 

 corner of the floor, a straight-edge or a grade line, and 

 a spirit level. 



It is an advantage to have a feeding floor its full 

 thickness above ground. Make light floors 4 inches and 

 floors subject to heavy loads 6 inches thick. For the 

 forms use 2-inch lumber of a width equal to the floor 

 thickness. Begin on a low side of the floor. Mark the 



grade height of each corner stake and set the forms to 

 a grade cord stretched from stake to stake. Use only 

 good materials and mix the concrete 1 part Portland 

 cement to 2J4 parts sand to 5 parts screened gravel or 

 crushed rock, or 1 part Portland cement to 5 parts bank- 

 run gravel. Measure the materials exactly; count 1 sack 

 of cement equal to 1 cubic foot. 



Always begin placing the concrete on the low side 

 of the floor, so that the rain from sudden showers will 

 not run from the hard onto the newly placed concrete. 

 Fill the trench and the slab section of the forms with 

 concrete. Bring the surface to grade by drawing over 

 it a straight edge with its ends on the opposite forms 

 or with one end on the form and the other on the finished 

 concrete. Four inches in from the edge, on each of the 

 low sides, temporarily imbed the rounded 4 by (i-inch 

 gutter mold and tamp it down until its square top is 

 even with the surface of the slab section of the/ floor. 

 Remove the mold and finish the surface with a wooden 

 float. The day after the concrete in each 

 section is placed, carefully throw on a cover- 

 ing of hay or straw, and keep it thoroughly 

 wet for a week. Connect the gutters with 

 the manure pit by means of a trough, another 

 gutter, or by large drain tile laid underground. 

 If concrete feeding troughs and racks are to 

 be built at some future time, make the neces- 

 sary mortises by temporarily imbedding 

 beveled blocks or wooden frames in the soft 

 concrete. 



Below is given an itemized bill of ma- 

 terials necessary for a 6-inch floor 24 by 36 

 feet, amply large to accommodate 50 hogs. 



Crushed rock or screened gravel, 20 



cubic yards, at $1.10 $ 22.00 



Sand, 10 cubic yards, at $1 10.00 



Portland cement, 28 barrels, at $2.50.. 70.00 



$102.00 



Mixing the concrete by hand, 5 men can 

 usually finish this floor in two days. Prices 

 of materials vary greatly in different locali- 

 ties. The figures given above are safe; but, 

 before deciding as to what your own floor 

 will cost you, consult local dealers. Depend- 

 ing upon price of labor and materials and the 

 thickness of the concrete, the floor will cost 

 6 to 12 cents for each square foot of surface. 



Concrete Barnyards. 



The advantages of concrete feeding floors so ap- 

 pealed to the farmers who first built them that they en- 

 larged the floors until their entire barnyards were sur- 

 faced with concrete. 



It is no uncommon sight in the spring and winter 

 to see an earthen barn lot so deep with mud that animals 

 go thirsty rather than attempt a trip to the water trough. 



The effect is bad on all kinds of livestock, especially 

 on fattening animals and dairy cattle. "Feeders" must 

 have an abundance of water to fatten quickly. Insuf- 

 ficient water cuts down the quantity of milk given by 

 dairy cows. Lack of enough exercise further decreases 

 the yield. An occasional trip through this mud to the 

 trough so cakes the cows' udders with dirt that the milker 

 wastes valuable time in washing them -arid they must be 

 washed, if one would have clean, wholesome milk. Con- 

 tinual tracking through the mud not only makes more 

 currying, but often produces that irritation on horses' 

 legs known as "scratches." Suddenly frozen, such an 

 earthen lot is so rough that it is impassable. Moreover, 

 the old barnyard with its surface worked up year after 

 year becomes a storage place, which carries over the 

 disease germs from one season to another. The "drop- 

 pings" are entirely lost, and, mixed with the earth, tend 

 to make the lot muddier the following year. To keep up 

 the fertility of the soil, all the manure produced on a 

 farm should be saved and returned to the fields. 



A concrete barnyard makes a fine exercise lot in 

 all kinds of weather and always affords a dry spot for 

 the animal's bed. Every shower washes the surface clean 

 and flushes the droppings into the manure pits. Concrete 

 yards lighten the work of the housewife, as there is no 

 mud to be tracked on the walks and kitchen floor. The 



