176 Report on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norway. 
of beasts facing each other, and separated by a walk or tramway, 
along which the food is brought. The food of the cattle is 
placed in fixed troughs (a, a, Figs. 2 and 3) at the sides of this 
Avalk, and water is generally given at the regulation time by 
turning a tap, which causes it to flow into the feeding-troughs ; 
but sometimes the water is given in pails, and in definite quantities 
to each animal. The straw is generally stored overhead, and is 
brought into the cowshed by means of trap-doors at convenient 
places in its ceiling, which forms the floor of the straw-barn. 
Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate these characteristic features, and also show 
how, in a well-constructed cow-house, the liquid manure runs 
into a gutter at the back of the animals, and from it, by means 
of sinks and underground drains, into a liquid-manure tank out- 
side. The general system is to have all the cattle of every 
description, no matter how numerous they may be, under one 
roof ; and it often occurred to me, when inspecting a dairy of 
150 or 200 milch-cows, to ask what would be done in the event 
of an outbreak of contagious disease. The answer invariably 
was that they had had no experience of such diseases amongst 
their cattle. 
The Swedish barn is an institution with which we are not 
familiar in England ; it was originally constructed, in most 
cases, with a view to its holding and storing the whole of the 
grain-crops and hay grown on the farm, and to its having, in 
addition, a sufficient reserve space to admit of the operations of 
threshing and dressing to be conducted under the same roof. 
Probably no better evidence of the recent advancement of Swedish 
agriculture could be given than the inadequate accommodation 
which the old barns afford for the crops that are now produced. 
These barns have therefore been supplemented by additional 
buildings, and in many districts by stacks, the existence of which 
seemed to me to throw a doubt on the necessity of sinking so 
much capital in the erection of huge buildings for storing hay 
and sheaf-corn. 
In a country where threshing is the chief occupation of the 
labourers during a long winter, and where a very large propor- 
tion of the produce of the farm is consumed by the* live stock 
and working staff", in consequence of the distance of markets 
and the necessarily expensive carriage of materials both to and 
from the farm, a suitable granary is a very important portion of 
the steading. At the same time, an Englishman can scarcely 
help questioning the necessity of such large buildings ; nor can 
he help suggesting that the increased use of improved threshing- 
machines will eventually render them unnecessary, and give the 
benefit of that better quality which belongs to freshly-threshed; 
grain and straw, whether used on the farm or sent to market. 
