116 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



to the extreme animal in either wing as from the octagonal 

 center. This form will, therefore, be equally convenient. 

 By doubling the width of the wings, we dispense with eight 

 long sides, 200 feet each, or 1,600 feet ; and as the ends of 

 the four wings are the same length as the eight wings, the 

 saving in outside wall is 1,600 feet. And if these sides are 

 20 feet high, and boarded up and down with a two-inch 

 batten, it will take 36,933 feet to cover these sides thus 

 dispensed with. It will also save all the outside and 

 interior posts of the four wings dispensed with, as it will 

 require no more posts in a wing 60 feet wide than in one 

 30 feet wide. This will make a saving of about 22,000 

 feet ; and the outside sills and plates on these eight long 

 sides will be saved, amounting to 24,000 feet, besides girths 

 and braces amounting in all to a saving of 100,000 feet. 

 The roofs and floors will cover the same number of square 

 feet as in the eight wings, and cost about the same. It 

 would also save 14,400 cubic feet of wall. The whole 

 saving by building the wings 60 feet wide could not be 

 less than two-fifths of the whole cost of the barn ; and the 

 convenience and economy of labor must be even greater 

 than with the eight narrow wings. This square-cross barn 

 has the capacity to feed, conveniently and comfortably, one 

 thousand head of cattle ; and it now remains to notice 

 some of the details of construction. 



The quadrangular center, 62 feet in diameter, may be 

 built with large corner-posts, say 14 x 14 inches square, 37 

 feet long, and the plates and girths of the wing may be 

 framed into these posts ; but it probably would be better 

 that the wing should have separate corner-posts, and they 

 be bolted to the posts of the center. The quadrangular 

 center should be high enough above the wings to clear the 

 ridge of its roof. This would require the posts of the 

 center building to be 17 or 18 feet longer than the wing 

 posts, as the ridge of the wing roof should rise at least 17 



