11 B Farm 
weather the stock will eat their food tolerably 
clean and the manure left after them, if scattered 
in early spring with the dung beetle, will be of 
the greatest service to the land as a top dressing. 
This plan too, is a saving of labor, when prop¬ 
erly done, But it should never be pursued on soft 
grounds, and in rainy or violently snowy wea¬ 
ther. But even in these cases, it is questionable 
whether a sort of crib made of four upright 
pieces of scantling, each four feet long, set up¬ 
right, with three boards of six or eight inches 
in width, ten, twelve, or fifteen feet long, and 
some four feet wide strongly put together with 
nails, the end of the posts projecting above the 
boards or bars, six or eight inches at top and at 
bottom, so as to stand either side up, and mova¬ 
ble by merely capsizing, would not be much 
better than the scattering method—I think they 
would—for by this latter way the food is con¬ 
fined within the crib out of reach of the feet of 
the animals, and is accessible either from over 
the top, or through the spaces of the boards 
forming the sides and ends. These articles are 
also of great convenience in barn yards, where 
hay or straw is fed, and the cattle kept in open 
sheds, and may be used for all kinds of stock 
alike. They are easily transported to any part 
of the farm, may be readily thrown together in 
piles under the shed, and thus preserved many 
years. They are cheap—cheaper indeed than 
racks, and much better too, for racks admit great 
waste by drawing the fodder through the gra¬ 
tings. Young stock, store cows and oxen, &c. 
will winter sufficiently well in open yards with 
comfortable sheds ; but all choice animals, milch 
cows, laboring oxen, fatting cattle, &c, should 
each be accommodated with a warm comforta¬ 
ble stable, well secured in the stall with each a 
separate manger of its own, where they may be 
fed more or less, and cared for in a proper man¬ 
ner. Considerable experience has entirely con¬ 
vinced me of the superiority of thus arranging 
the feeding of stock. Those fed in stalls, where 
they enjoy perfect quiet, will thrive on less food 
than others in the open fields will grow poor 
upon, each being in the same condition when 
driven into winter quarters. If a creature be 
ailing, due care and nursing may be given it, 
when if running at large with the herd, it could 
receive little or no attention, and great loss of 
flesh, if not death would be the consequence. 
By the stabling system also, no loss at all of 
valuable food need occur, as all can be saved 
and fed to some sort of stock or other. In a 
large stock, I am aware that the stabling system 
cannot be economically extended to all; but the 
sheltering system can, and it should be adopted 
by every systematic and careful husbandman. 
These remarks have been sufficiently extended, 
and I now proceed to the 
Buildings. 
Plan of a Barn.— The ground plan must 
depend something upon the position where it is 
to be located. If on a side hill, it may have an 
under ground room, or cellar, or stables. This 
however, is generally very expensive, and only 
resorted to for some especial purpose, or to gra¬ 
tify a peculiar taste or convenience. My plan 
is that of utility solely: to obtain the greatest 
possible profit at the least expense. I therefore 
propose that for the greatest convenience it be 
placed on either elevated ground where the 
drainings from it can be carried on to the ad¬ 
joining cultivated fields, or on a gentle slope 
having the same advantages. , Ample cellar 
room for storing roots and other soft crops is not 
only convenient, but almost indispensable, and 
may be made beneath a part of the barn, or un¬ 
der an adjoining building; but wherever it be, 
it should be sufficiently drained, and thoroughly 
guarded from frost. In the year 1835, finding 
it necessary to erect several barns on sundry 
tracts of improved land, after much study and 
observation, I adopted a plan dissimilar from 
any that I had yet seen, and comprising, as I 
thought, more convenience, saving of labor and 
economy in storage, than any other plan. Two 
of them are one hundred feet long and fifty feet 
wide in the main upright parts, and the third, 
fifty feet long and forty feet wide. They were 
all upon the same plan essentially, and I here 
give that of one of them, figured and described 
in a letter to Judge Buel in the year 1835. 
Ground Plan. 
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