292 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Junk 



steep roof. The outside to be covered with 17^ feet 

 boards, planed and either battened or lined, and 

 painted or not, as the builder prefers. The base- 

 ment should be eight feet high. 



Plan of Basement. 



The size and arrangement of the apartments are 

 sufficiently indicated by the Plan. The root cellar 

 being directly under the driveway can be filled by 

 a trap- door in the floor above. To make it safe 

 against frost it should be built of brick or plank 

 and tilled on the sides and overhead with one foot 

 of sawdust or chaff. Some advise not to go to the 

 expense of building a root cellar, as they almost 

 always prove failures. Such has not been my ex- 

 perience, after using one fourteen years at Essex 

 Vt., previously to coming here, last April. I re- 

 gard a root cellar as indispensable. 



First Floor. 



I would not have any partition between stables 

 B and C. In stables A and B, the cattle face each 

 each other. By building a leanto against the oarn 

 opposite the passage by stable C, another good 

 stable would be secured either for horses or cattle 

 with all the convenien -es for feeding, &c. 



The cows stand on plank four feet and ten inches 

 long, with a drop of live inches and an inclination 

 of one inch. The feed manger floor is made of 

 matched boards. The cows are separated from 

 each other by a plank one foot wide set up in the 

 feed manger between their heads, and are fastened 

 by stanchions. The stable floor should be placed 

 on very strong limbers, and be made if possible 

 so tight that the stench of the decomposing manure 

 shall not affect the air of tue stable. I would as 

 soon omit to build a ventilator for the manure cel- 

 lar as for the cow stable. Every cellar should be 

 supplied with one,. By all means give the cows 

 all the light you can, and govern the air of the 

 stable by well arranged air passag:es, avoiding as 

 much as possible drafts of cold air. Bad air and 

 sameness of food will cause barn itch. Feed sul- 

 phur when you do your salt, — and with other proper 

 care, your cattle will not be troubled. Cattle 

 never have barn itch that are kept out of doors. 



As the bay extends below the floor, there is dan- 

 ger that if the hay rests against tue brick or stone 



walks it will become musty. This can be easily 

 avoided by setting up some poles six inches thick, 

 and nailing on boards or slabs, leaving a passage for 

 the damp air to escape through the cracks above 

 the walls. The capacity of the bay is very much 

 increased by its extreme height from top to bot- 

 tom, and the amount that can be stored in it is 

 truly surprising. No difficulty will be found in 

 storing eighty or ninety tons of h'ay. 



Allowing three feet for each cow you can put in 

 thirty-three ; by building the leanto, already alluded 

 to, eleven more can be added ; and by using the 

 space under the barn floor, and cutting through 

 the wall to throw the manure into the cellar, 

 room may be found for fourteen more, making it a 

 cheap barn in which to put fifty-eight cows Tois 

 barn can be filled on either side to the ridge by 

 that useful invention the horse pitchfork, and the 

 fork can be used in taking the hay from the bay 

 when it is too low to pitch up with case by hand. 

 Also, the puUies may be used to haul up the roots 

 from the cellar. My plan was copied with satis- 

 faction by two or three of my neighbors. 



E. J. BUTTOLPH. 



Bufalo, N. r., April 17, 1870. 



LIME FROM GAS WOEKS. 



Can you inform me if gas-house lime is worth 

 anything to put upon land ? Some are trying it 

 upon their land about here. No one seems to 

 know what good it will do. It can be had at the 

 gas-house for two cents a bushel. 



Woonsocket, R. I., 1870. 



Remarks. — The refuse lime of gas-works con- 

 sists, — according to Prof. J. F. W. Johnston, of 

 England, — principally of a mixture of carbonate of 

 lime with a variable quantity of gypsum and 

 other salts of lime containing sulphur and a little 

 coal tar. He says it may be used directly upon 

 mossy lands, and upon stubble land in spring, 

 when preparing for crops. 



In composts it has a tendency to be converted 

 into gypsum. In moderate quantity it may be 

 safely mixed, he says, with barnyard manure. If 

 applied too generously, it is liable to be injurious 

 to crops of young grain. But grass lands, though 

 at first browned by its application, soon recover 

 and repay the cost by yielding a greener and an 

 earlier bite in the spring. We should advise to 

 use it cautiously, in moderate quantity, as some- 

 times at least, it contains properties that are fatal 

 to vegetation. 



At a discussion on Manures, by the Herkimer 

 County, N. Y. Farmers' Club, Mr. Whitman, of 

 Little Falls, said the lime from paper mills, and 

 the gas-lime from the gas-works can be turned 

 to good account when properly applied. At first 

 he did not know how to use it, and by putting on 

 too much the plants were destroyed. He now 

 draws the lime to the farm in the fall and winter 

 and puts it in heaps. In the spring he spreads it 

 from the cart as the team moves along, by giving 

 each shovelful a sweep or flirt by which the lime 

 is evenly spread over the field. In one season he 

 applied about one thousand bushels of gas-lime to 

 his meadows, and thinks it paid largely in the in- 

 crease of the crops. 



A writer in the Scottish Farmer says he obtained 

 a quantity of gas-lime one year, but applied it so 



