SQUARE-CROSS BARK. 115 



inches long. Now, eight wings, 30 feet wide and 200 feet 

 long, each having room for 126 head of cattle, will contain 

 in all 1,008 head. From this octagonal center it will be 

 just 200 feet to the most distant animal in either of the 

 wings, Each wing will be opposite a like wing on the 

 other side of the octagonal center, and consequently there 

 may be a continuous floor from each through the center 

 and the opposite wing, and from the center either of the 

 eight wings is equally accessible. The reader will see at a 

 glance how compact and conveniently reached all these 

 thousand cattle are. Each wing should stand upon a base- 

 ment wall, 8 feet high (the basement story occupied with 

 the cattle), and it may be built as capacious as the feeder 

 requires for winter storage. The fodder or grain over the 

 basement can be easily dropped through upon the feeding 

 floors below, so that the convenience in handling food for 

 the cattle could not be greater. But there are some draw- 

 backs in this eight-winged barn which we will point out, 

 and see if they can be avoided by any other plan. 



These long wings have the prime objection of the narrow, 

 oblong barn too much outside wall, and too much timber 

 for the space inclosed. This could be improved by building 

 the wings 60 feet wide, giving room for two double rows 

 of cattle, so that each wing should contain 252 cattle, 

 instead of 126. This would dispense with one-half of the 

 wings, and still hold the same number of cattle. But the 

 sides of an octagonal center will not admit of so wide a 

 wing ; we must, therefore, have a quadrangular center of 

 62 feet diameter, with four wings, 62 feet wide and 200 

 feet long, radiating from the four sides of the quadrangle. 



This will be a 



SQUARE-CROSS BARK, 



having all its extreme parts equidistant from the center. 

 It will be the same distance from this quadrangular center 



