Oil  the  Construction  of  Farm-Buildings.  245 
purpose  hereinafter  to  be  explained.  The  roof  should  be  formed 
of  Norway  redwood  battens  in  a manner  easily  to  be  understood 
by  an  inspection  of  the  transverse  section  given  in  Plate  VII. 
There  should  be  a couple  and  tie  beam,  which  should  be  of  the 
full  size  of  batten,  over  each  division  between  the  boxes.  The 
ridge-piece  may  be  formed  of  battens  slit  into  half  their  thickness, 
and  the  rafters,  purlines,  and  pole-plate  of  one-third  of  the 
breadth  of  a batten.  Against  the  back  or  longitudinal  wall  of  the 
boxes  should  be  an  upright  deal  connected  with  the  wall-plate  on 
the  dwarf-wall  separating  the  boxes  by  means  of  a mortice  and 
tenon,  and  receiving  in  a notch  at  its  top  the  beam  of  the  roof. 
The  upright  deal  just  mentioned  should  have  a groove  formed  on 
its  face  similar  to  those  previously  described  on  the  upright  deals 
at  each  end  of  the  range  at  the  front  of  the  boxes.  Midway  in 
the  length  of  the  divisions  between  the  boxes  there  should  be  two 
upright  battens  opposite  to  each  other  at  2J  inches  apart,  the 
lower  ends  of  which  should  be  notched  into  the  wall-plate,  and 
the  upper  ends  secured  to  the  tie-beam  by  a screw-bolt.  When 
the  excavations  of  the  boxes  are  in  sound  clay  and  impervious  to 
liquid,  all  that  will  be  required  to  be  done  to  the  bottom  will  be 
to  beat  it  firm  ; but  if  the  soil  be  loose  and  permeable  in  which 
the  boxes  are  made,  it  will  be  necessary  to  cover  their  bottoms 
with  concrete,  or  perhaps,  in  some  cases,  it  may  be  necessary  to 
line  them  with  bricks  laid  in  cement  in  order  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  liquid ; and  in  all  cases,  before  being  used,  the  outside 
of  the  dwarf-walls  forming  the  front  of  the  boxes  should,  from 
their  foundations,  be  carefully  cleared  of  brick-bats  and  rubbish 
let  fall  by  the  bricklayers  whilst  being  built,  and  well  puddled. 
Such  precautions  are  particularly  necessary  to  perfection  in  the 
construction  of  the  boxes,  as  escape  of  liquid  would  be  great  dete- 
rioration of  the  fertilizing  quality  of  the  manure — one  of  the  most 
essential  merits  of  box-feeding  consisting  in  the  whole  of  the 
liquid  being  absorbed  by  the  litter,  and  which,  being  compressed 
along  with  the  solid  excrement  by  the  trampling  of  the  animals, 
produces  a superiority  in  quality  to  that  of  any  manure  of  a simi- 
lar description  than  can  be  obtained  by  any  other  mode. 
A simple  and  very  efficient  manner  of  fitting  up  the  cattle- 
boxes,  adopted  by  Mr.  Laycock  at  Lintz  Hall,  may  here  be  de- 
scribed as  follows,  viz. : — The  front  of  the  box  is  furnished  with 
horizontal  bars  from  one  pillar  to  another,  their  ends  fitting  rather 
loosely  into  the  grooves  ; the  lowest  is  formed  of  a deal  1 1 inches 
wide,  with  chocks  3^  inches  wide  fixed  on  the  lower  edge  near 
the  ends  ; on  the  upper  edge  is  hung,  by  means  of  hooks  formed 
of  flat  iron  fitting  the  thickness  of  the  deal,  a sheet-iron  feeding- 
pan  or  manger  2 feet  6 inches  in  length,  15  inches  wide  at  the 
top  and  8 inches  wide  at  the  bottom,  14  inches  deep  at  the  back 
