Farm- Buildings. 
187 
in  farm  buildings,  who  would  be  satisfied  with  any  plan  which 
was  not  capable  of  being  adapted  to  such  a system  whenever  it 
might  be  thought  desirable  to  commence  it. 
Having  thus  briefly  pointed  out  the  general  views  entertained 
by  the  judges  of  the  proper  ground  to  be  taken  in  making  their 
award,  I will  proceed  to  show  their  application  to  the  Essays  now 
published,  more  especially  to  that  selected  for  the  prize. 
One  of  the  first  points  which  will  strike  every  one  conversant 
with  farm  buildings  is,  that  in  all  the  plans  now  published  the  old 
method  of  building  round  a rectangular  area,  and  using  the  en- 
closure as  a straw-yard,  has  been  either  given  up  or  very  much 
modified.  The  cause  of  this  change  is  obvious  : so  long  as  farm 
horses  were  fed  on  unground  corn  and  uncut  hay  or  straw,  it  was 
only  necessary  that  the  stable  should  be  conveniently  placed  with 
respect  to  the  barn  and  the  hay-stack ; and  when  cattle  were 
wintered  chiefly  on  straw,  which  was  supplied  to  them  direct  from 
the  barn  door,  the  old  fashioned  square  yard,  surrounded  by 
buildings,  was  probably  the  best  that  could  have  been  adopted, 
inasmuch  as  it  took  up  the  least  room  and  was  the  cheapest  mode 
of  supplying  shelter  to  the  cattle. 
By  degrees,  however,  it  was  discovered  that  if  the  horse  corn 
were  ground  and  the  fodder  cut  into  chaff,  not  only  was  1 he  food 
consumed  with  less  waste,  and  more  perfectly  digested,  but  the 
labour  of  mastication  was  materially  reduced,  and  the  animal 
power  economized  and  reserved  for  more  profitable  employment. 
The  same  principle  holds  good  in  the  feeding  of  cattle,  and  of 
late  it  has  been  carried  a step  farther,  and  heat  has  been  applied 
either  to  steam  or  scald  the  chaff  with  linseed  gruel  and  meal, 
with  the  view  of  rendering  the  nourishing  ingredients  of  the 
food  more  perfectly  digestible,  and  of  supplying  artificially  the 
heat  which  must  otherwise  be  produced  by  a waste  of  the  animal 
tissue. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  the  subject  further,  as  it  would  be 
easy  to  show  that  in  other  branches  of  farm  management  the  same 
principle  is  being  carried  out,  and  it  may  be  stated  generally : — 
That  it  is  found  profitable  to  call  in  the  aid  of  machinery,  and  to 
make  the  business  of  a farm  approximate  more  closely  to  that 
of  a manufactory. 
The  necessary  consequence  of  this  change  of  system  is  a great 
increase  of  intercommunication  between  the  different  buildings  of 
a farm.  The  straw  which  formerly  went  from  the  flail  to  the 
rack  now  goes  in  the  first  instance  to  the  chaff-cutter,  from  thence 
to  the  boiling-house,  and  lastly  to  the  stable  or  cattle-shed,  so 
that  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  important  that  the  straw-barn, 
the  chaff-house,  the  cooking  apparatus,  and  the  live  stock,  should 
be  as  near  one  another  as  possible.  Hence  one  of  the  indispen- 
