714 Planning & Construction of Farm Buildings. [Nov., 1922. 



arranged for from the administrative block, and some care 

 was taken for the comfort of the farm workers by the provision 

 of a mess room. The plan may be said to be compact and 

 straightforward, but the position of the cow house between 

 two stock yards should no longer be considered ideal. 



A Traditional Plan, 1914. — The second illustration (Fig. 2) 

 shows the original plan for new farm buildings prepared for 

 the Governors of Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Newton 

 Abbot, and is interesting as showing a distinct adherence to 

 traditional type — in fact it is to all intents and purposes as 

 true to accepted principle as is the earlier plan of Newtown 

 farm shown in Fig. 1. Originally prepared before the War, 

 nothing was actually done with regard to building until 1920, 

 when the state of the existing farmstead at the Seale-Hayne 

 College made a reconstruction imperative. 



A review of the then situation, however, made it clear that 

 the proposed plan, though excellent in itself, maintained the 

 traditional position lor the cow shed with its obvious disadvan- 

 tages from the modern hygienic standpoint. Further, the plan 

 did not lend itself well to future extensions or modifications 

 in farming practice and was considered hardly sufficiently 

 adaptable for modern scientific and experimental farming. 



A New Type. — The third illustration shows the general lay- 

 out plan of the new buildings as finally approved by the 

 Governors and passed by the Ministry of Agriculture. It 

 should be mentioned that the site is an exceptionally difficult 

 one owing to the uneven nature of the ground, the character 

 of the approaches, and the position of existing buildings, such 

 as the dairy and College workshop already erected in 1914. 



In view of future legislation with regard to the production 

 of clean milk, and the intention of the Governors to keep a 

 herd of dairy cows, the authorities at the Ministry of Health 

 were consulted with regard to the placing and arrangement of 

 the cow-house. The suggestion of the Ministry of Agriculture 

 that the traditional position of the cow-house should be changed 

 so that it no longer abutted upon stock and manure yards was 

 welcomed, as it has long been proved that the main source 

 of milk contamination is from minute particles of manure, 

 from which it follows that proximity to a manure yard or pit 

 must of necessitv increase the risk of contamination. It is 

 noteworthy that this departure from the normal and accepted 

 type was decided upon on its own merits and was not due in 

 any way to the falling ground or any peculiarity of site. 



