98 



NEW ENGLAND F.AHIMER. 



Feb. 



CONVENIENT DAIRY BAKNS. 



The following is the article we alluded to 

 in connection with the illustrations of a dairy- 

 barn on page 100 : — 



The modern barn in Herkimer and Oneida 

 counties, N. Y., are roomy and arranged, if 

 possible, so that one structure will meet all the 

 ■wants of the farm. This is easily done when 

 a side hill and running water are convenient to 

 the farm-house. In such cases the stables for 

 milking in summer are those in which the cows 

 are kept in winter. This arrangement saves 

 the cost of a special building, or "milk-barn," 

 as it is termed. 



There is great difference of opinion in re- 

 gard to whether manure cellars under the sta- 

 ble, are injurious or otherwise. Many barns 

 in Herkimer, Oneida and the central counties 

 of New York are constructed with these cel- 

 lars under the stables, and in no instance 

 where they have been properly ventilated and 

 absorbents used for taking up the liquid ma- 

 nure, have we heard of any bad effect on ac- 

 count of the manures, «S:c. The stock are 

 quite as healthy, and appear as thrifty, at all 

 seasons, as in barns without manure cellars. 

 We have examined manure cellars, under 

 stables, at different seasons of the year. 

 Some of them were badly ventilated and were 

 fowl with gases emanating from the decompos- 

 ing excrement which had been dumped with- 

 out absorbents. Such a condition of things 

 must be a source of disease and cannot be re- 

 commended. In others, where ventilation 

 had been secured, and absorbents, such as 

 muck, dry earth, or sawdust, freely used, the 

 atmosphere was comparatively pure and free 

 from any disagreeable odor. Generally, 

 those who have manure cellars under the sta- 

 ble are pleased with them. They save a great 

 deal of labor in the course of a year, and 

 with the precautions we have named, as re- 

 gards ventilation,. &c., they have not been 

 found to be objectionable by the majority of 

 dairymen who have them in use. Leaving 

 this question, for the present, to be decided 

 by those contemplating building, it will suffice, 

 perhaps, to give the general outlines of a class 

 of barns now being erected in the dairy dis- 

 tricts of Central New York, which are found 

 to be convenient and give satisfaction. 



Our description is that of a barn in Trenton, 

 Oneida county, belonging to W. W. Wheeler. 

 It has capactity for fifty cows, and has a ma- 

 nure cellar under the stables. The basement 

 for manures may be converted into stables for 

 the cows if desired. The barn stands on a 

 side-hill, and is one hundred feet long by 

 forty feet wide, and has a stone basement nine 

 feet high. The bottom of this basement, 

 which is used for manures, is paved with cob- 

 ble stones, pounded down in the earth, and 

 then cemented with water, lime and sand, in 

 proportion of one tenth lime to nine-tenths 

 sand. This forms a oerfectly tight bottom, 



and is the receptacle for all liquid and solid 

 excrement from stock in the stables above. 



The basement is well lighted and ventilated, 

 and teams can be driven through the central 

 alley for removing manures. IMuck and dry 

 earth are hauled into the central alley and 

 used from time to time as an absorbent, and 

 when mingled with the liquid and solid excre- 

 ment a large quantity of fertilizing material is 

 made. The stables are eleven feet wide, and 

 the cows are fed from the central alley, which 

 is fourteen feet wide. The cows stand four 

 feet apart, and are fastened with double chains 

 two feet long, attached to a ring sliding on a 

 post. Between each cow there is a plank par- 

 tition extending into the central alley the 

 width of the feed box and back into the stable 

 some two feet. This plan gives the cows 

 more liberty and ease of position than stan- 

 chions, and many prefer these fastenings to 

 stanchions on this account. Back of the cows 

 and along the outside of the slables, the fioor 

 is raised some five inches higher than the 

 drop, back of where the cows stand, and there 

 is an open space between the two floors, where 

 the manures are pushed into the cellar below. 

 The stables are well lighted and ventilated. 



Above the cows are the drive-floor and bays, 

 where the teams deposit the hay and fodder. 

 The loads come in at one end and go out at the 

 side at the other end, so that several teams can 

 be in the barn, and the work of unloading go on 

 at the same time, and not interfere with each 

 other. The posts above the cows are sixteen 

 feet in height. On one side of the barn are 

 the horse stables and carriage-house, commu- 

 nicating with the upper floor, and all arranged 

 in the most perfect manner as to granary and 

 the means of dropping hay for feeding horses 

 and the cattle below. In the upper loft over 

 the drive-way a flooring is arranged with open 

 spaces, where a considerable quantity of corr 

 in the stalk may be taken up and preserved 

 until such time as there shall be leisure for 

 husking. 



The leading feature of barns now being 

 built in the dairy region, is to have the drive- 

 floor and bays above the stables. Where the 

 site is suitable, some prefer to have the drive- 

 way near the peak, or top of the barn. The 

 hay may then be rolled from the load on either 

 side into the bays. In feeding — the stables 

 being below — the fodder is thrown downward, 

 either through openings arranged in the bays 

 or in the central alley , according to the man- 

 ner in which the cows are placed in the stable. 

 — X. A. Willard, in Bural New Yorker. 



Wen Remedy. — O. W. More writes to 

 the Itural New Yorker that the following pre- 

 scription will cure a wen in most cases, if ap- 

 plied early and faithfully. Take a bottle 

 with a large neck, fill with balm of Gilead 

 buds, (say one pint,) put in enough of the 

 best of alcohol to cover the buds ; let it stand 



