560  On  the  Cost  of  Agricultural  Buildings. 
The  corn,  when  dressed,  is  drawn  up  from  the  lower  to  the 
upper  floor  of  the  barn  by  machinery,  and  deposited  in  a spacious 
granary  adjoining.  On  this  upper  floor  is  fixed  the  machinery 
for  grinding  beans,  bruising  oats,  cutting  chaff,  &c. ; and  these, 
when  required  as  food  for  the  cattle,  are  lowered  through  a trap- 
door into  a truck.  This,  when  filled,  is  run  along  the  tramway- 
in  the  cattle-sheds,  enabling  one  person  to  feed  70  or  80  beasts 
in  a very  short  space  of  time.  The  truck  has  wooden  shoots  or 
troughs  2 feet  6 inches  long  on  each  side  of  it,  which  are  hung 
with  hinges,  and  have  slides  placed  across  the  shoots  which  reach 
to  the  feeding-mangers  on  each  side  the  tramway : therefore,  by 
lifting  up  the  slides,  the  prepared  food  passes  down  the  shoots  to 
the  mangers,  which  are  filled  instantaneously. 
Corn-sheds  on  posts  (mere  skeleton  sheds)  are  erected  behind 
the  barn,  and  in  these  sheds  rails  are  laid  down.  The  corn  is 
stacked  on  frames  in  the  usual  manner,  but  all  the  frames  are 
wedged  or  blocked  up,  except  one. — This  is  on  wheels,  and 
placed  at  the  back  of  the  barn,  immediately  adjoining  the  feeding- 
place  of  the  threshing-machine,  and  is  also  loaded  with  grain. 
The  grain  stacked  on  this  frame  is  the  first  to  be  threshed  ; and 
as  the  feeding-board  of  the  threshing-machine  is  opposite  and 
immediately  adjoining  the  frame  (as  shown  at  A on  plan),  it  is 
at  once  thrown  from  the  stack  into  the  machine  with  very  little 
labour,  a boy  being  enabled  to  perform  the  task  easily.  V\  hen 
the  corn  on  this  frame  has  been  threshed,  and  another  stack  is 
required,  the  frame  is  run  under  the  next  stack  (placed  either 
at  B,  C,  or  D : see  plan),  it  being  1 inch  less  in  height  than 
those  which  are  blocked  up.  The  blocks  being  knocked  away, 
the  frame,  and  the  corn  on  it,  rests  on  that  on  wheels.  A rope 
is  attached  to  the  steam-engine  machinery,  also  to  the  frame, 
and  the  stack,  with  its  frame,  is  drawn  to  the  feeding-place  of  the 
machine  at  the  back  of  the  barn.  By  repeating  this  operation, 
all  the  grain  stacked  may  be  conveyed  to  the  machine  without 
having  occasion  to  thatch  any  of  the  stacks.  Bean-stacks  may  be 
placed  in  the  shed  at  B,  oats  at  C,  and  wheat  at  D ; or  they  may 
be  placed  alternately,  thereby  enabling  the  workmen  to  get  at 
any  particular  stack  after  the  first  has  been  threshed,  thus  obvi- 
ating the  necessity  for  turn-tables,  which  are  very  costly.  It  is 
calculated  that  a saving  of  10  per  cent,  will  be  effected  by  the 
erection  of  these  sheds,  and  by  adopting  this  means  of  locomotion, 
instead  of  building  the  stacks  in  the  stack-yard,  as  is  usually- 
done,  and  afterwards  thatching  them, — then  carting  them  from  the 
stack-yard  to  the  bay  of  the  barn,  and  thence  to  the  threshing- 
machine,  independently  of  the  security  which  the  sheds  afford 
from  storms  or  rain  during  harvest  (which  in  Cheshire  is  a very 
hazardous  one).  The  facility  given  for  carting  a large  quantity  of 
