156 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



LEGISLATIVE AGE.ICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



Reported for the Farmer by P. W. Lothrop. 



The sixth meeting of the series was held on 

 Monday evening last, at the R,epresentatives' Hall, 

 when the subject for discussion was Farm Build- 

 ings. The Hon. SiMON Brown, editor of the 

 Neio Enr/land Farmer, was invited to preside. 



The chairman thanked the gentlemen for the 

 position, but said he was not fully prepared to dis- 

 cuss the matter. Few things were more impor- 

 tant on a farm than the kind and location of farm 

 buildings. Buildings should be located as near 

 the centre of the land as practicable, and not many 

 rods apart, where it could be done without too 

 great sacrifices. Where they are already located, 

 we must make the best of it. Some farmers ob- 

 ject to this congregation of buildings, as increasing 

 the danger from fire ; but the speaker thought 

 this a minor consideration. Others object to the 

 odors from barns by their close proximity to the 

 dwelling. But these can be prevented or over- 

 come by the proper use of muck and other materi- 

 als as absorbents. Mr. Brown here showed a di- 

 agram exhibiting the position of farm buildings as 

 he would have them. They would be attached — 

 first the house, then the kitchen or dairy-room, 

 wood-shed, and carriage-house, following on, and 

 then the barn. The loss in an extra and unneces- 

 sary travel of six rods each time of going to the 

 barn, for 40 j^ears, going and retui'ning ten times 

 each day, would be 5,480 miles, or about 137 

 miles annually. 



Another point in regard to farm buildings — and 

 one heretofore greatly overlooked — is the want of 

 shelter for them. If they stand out, in a bleak 

 and dreary landscape, they are seriously affected 

 by the elements that work upon them, viz : the 

 sun, wind, hail and snow. The effect of the sun 

 upon wood-work — \Yhere its rays are not softened 

 by a screen of some kind — is quite destructive. 

 The shingles on most of our roofs show it, and the 

 warping of outer boarding may be traced to the 

 same cause. In an unprotected house, the vind 

 is pressed tlirough every opening, bringing cold 

 and dampness, and making an additional cost to 

 keep the room comfortably warm. It is thought 

 that good shingles would scarcely wear away in 

 less than fifty years, provided they could be kejit 

 precisely in place all the time — while under the 

 combination of the sun, wind and rain, they hardly 

 last one-third of that time. These effects would 

 be greatly modified, if buildings were partially 

 protected by the presence of trees in their vicinity. 

 It requires but a narrow belt of evergreens to 

 form a complete barrier against the wind. The 

 liemlock is an admirable tree for this purpose. A 

 breadth of ten feet set with that tree or with the 

 Norway spruce alternating, efiectually shuts out 

 the wnds. The wliite pine, also, so common 



among us, is hardy, easily removed, and is as 

 graceful and handsome as the hemlock or spruce. 

 These evergreens are not valuable merely for their 

 beauty of form or the protection which they afford, 

 but partly for the sootliing sounds that come from 

 tliem on a summer night, like the coming and re- 

 treating waves on a far-off sea-shore — or the 

 grander music of winter winds through their 

 branches, swelling into sublime anthems of atmo- 

 spheric power. If they are interspersed with the 

 rock-maple, the graceful white biz-ch, the moose- 

 wood or sumac, the effect will be still more jjleas- 

 ing. 



The south should be left open. This aspect has 

 few liigh winds, and the windows looking out upon 

 it may be sufficiently protected from summer suns 

 by a few climbing plants, such as the Prairie 

 Queen, or Balti7nore Belle Roses, the Scarlet, Yel- 

 loxo Monthly, or the Bed or White Tartarian 

 Honeysuckle, Chinese Wistaria, or other climbing 

 plants. 



From the foot of these should be a green, well- 

 kept lawn, if it be but twenty feet square, where 

 the children can take their little friends and have 

 a frolic. 



In conclusion, he hoped farmers will listen more 

 frequently to the promptings of a refined taste, 

 and do more about their homes with reference to 

 beauty as well as utility. They will have a happy 

 influence upon the mind, habits and character ; 

 will light up the home with sweet affections, and 

 shed a fragrance over all its duties. 



Hon. Albert Fearing, of Ilingham, being 

 called upon, said he might not be able to throw 

 much light upon the subject, but he thought our 

 farmers should cultivate three things — conveni- 

 ence, economy and beauty. He lived in a house 

 built in 1G9S, but it was conveniently arranged 

 and good for a farmer. He spoke of barns, and 

 mentioned one of his own, which was 40 by 60 

 feet ; but he wished to speak particularly of sheep 

 barns. Too little attention, he thought, had been 

 paid to sheep. There should be only 25 or 30 in 

 a flock, and they should be I^ept warm and diy. 

 He described a barn of liis for this purpose — 20 

 by 40 feet — and observed that the hay should be 

 where the sheep are, the pens six feet high, and 

 alleys for them on each end. In his, the hay 

 comes from the centre, and there are places for 30 

 sheep on each side. He also made other state- 

 ments respecting it, and said it cost $400. He 

 had another barn for sheep and cattle, with a cel- 

 lar under it, and sheep sheds connected therewith, 

 which he thought not good economy to paint. Al- 

 so, another one facing the west, 60 by 40 feet, 

 nearly in the centre of thirty-five acres. The cel- 

 lar is eight feet deep, stoned with granite, and ad- 

 mits of entrance Avith a cart ; it cost from $5000 to 

 $6000, and would admit tlu-ee standing loads of hay 



