88 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



end of the pitching rope may be moved in any direction, 

 and the forkful dropped at any spot desired. This arrange- 

 ment requires very little mowing away, and thus saves a 

 large amount of labor. The high barn gives plenty of 

 room for the swing of the fork, and all the railway tracks, 

 contrived to run over purlines, become useless. 



THE OCTAGON. 



In doing work in barn, concentration is an important 

 point. The shorter the lines of travel, the easier the work 

 is done ; therefore, barns that are square or circular have 

 shorter lines of travel than the oblong form, and the cir- 

 cular or octagonal form can be built with comparatively 

 short timber, besides affording every facility for a self- 

 supporting roof, or a roof resting simply upon the plates 

 or outside rim and, thus constructed, the interior space of 

 the barn is entirely free of posts and beams, except the 

 floor-beams, upon which to rest the scaffold to utilize the 

 space over the floor. And a barn of this shape, with a 

 floor through the center, has every line of travel equi- 

 distant from the center, and one floor accommodates all 

 parts of the barn alike. Besides, the octagonal form admits 

 of building any sized barn, up to 90 feet diameter, without 

 any timber more than 39 feet long. A 90-foot octagon has 

 a circumference or outside wall of 298% feet, and each side 

 is only 37 feet 3K inches long. This barn will comfortably 

 stable 114 head of cattle in its basement, and contains, 

 with 25-feet posts (besides a 14-feet floor through the second 

 story) 151,395 cubic feet of space for storing crops. It 

 would store 250 tons of hay, and 5,000 bushels of grain in 

 the straw. It would require an oblong barn 40 by 180 feet 

 long, with same height of posts, to have the same capacity 

 for stabling cattle and room for crops. This long barn 

 would have a circumference of 440 feet, or an outside wall 



