Farm Buildings. 
121 
once a day, being turned out of the stables and 
yard about ten o’clock, A. M., after feeding all 
they required of dry food. Their water, in 
abundant quantity from the Niagara river, is 
within a dozen rods of the yard. They then 
proceed leisurely to the spot and spend some 
time in sipping and drinking, which they do 
heartily; after which, they leisurely return to 
the yard; and although in the early part of the 
winter driven again to the stream before night, 
refused to drink again. Finding that one wa¬ 
tering was sufficient, no more has been given to 
them, and a healthier, finer wintered stock of 
cattle I have never seen. Not a sick day has 
accrued to a single one of them, nor a loss of 
any kind, while several of the cows have given 
milk and suckled calves during a part, or through 
the whole winter; these last, however, have had 
a little extra feed. This method of watering 
I have some years practised, and with uniform 
success. A year and a half since, I had some 
fine Short Horn "stock procured from a distance 
late in the fall which were in low condition, and 
as I wished to give them some extra care, kept 
them at my own residence instead of sending to 
the farm with the other stock. In the stable 
yard is a water-butt constantly supplied with 
pure spring water where they could drink at 
any time; but after taking in their morning 
draught, which they did in large quantity after 
leaving the stables, they seldom repeated it du¬ 
ring the day, or noticed it in any manner. No 
animals enjoyed higher health, and they were 
regularly salted every week; and as the hay 
was very poor, they were fed each a peck or 
more of wheat bran daily, which might perhaps 
increase their desire for water. I know of but 
one disadvantage attending the distant mode of 
watering: it is that of partially or wholly los¬ 
ing the droppings of the cattle while at the wa¬ 
tering place. This, to be sure, is a loss to some 
extent, but it is perhaps as little as can be suf¬ 
fered in any other way. Some farmers, and 
good ones too, build small hay barns which 
stand scattered about their fields contiguous to 
springs or water courses, for storing hay as it is 
cut, from which it is fed out in winter, and the 
cattle driven to them for that purpose. This is 
better than stacking, as the hay is sheltered from 
damage; but the cattle are exposed to the in¬ 
clemency of the cold and storms of our northern 
winters; and the manure, unless scattered by 
the dung beetle in early spring, is very much 
lost in its good effects to the soil, and the method 
as a general rule is not to be recommended. 
These things, however, must depend in their 
economy, on circumstances. The proprietor 
must take all matters into consideration and ar¬ 
range his buildings and plans according to the 
climate, situation, and capacity of his farm. I 
In connection with this subject, I may be ex¬ 
cused for remarking something upon the neces¬ 
sity of curing hay and other fodder in the best 
possible manner. It costs no more to do these 
things well than ill, and no remark is required 
on the great superiority of good and proper food 
for anything requiring it. In all coarse, or of¬ 
fal stock feed, the cutting-box is required to pre¬ 
pare it for close consumption. Its use, however, 
is both laborious and expensive, and in an ordi¬ 
nary farming country where winter forage is not 
extraordinarily dear, it need not be resorted to, 
unless for working animals occasionally. Wher© 
economy demands the use of machinery on the 
farm ; and by economy I mean the saving of ex¬ 
pense in achieving any kind of productive re¬ 
sult ; it should be provided if possible; but in 
ordinary stock feeding, the only requisites— sim¬ 
plicity and despatch ,—the uses of the pitchfork 
and rake are most in demand. The labors of 
the hay and harvest fields are much the most 
critical, hurried, and severe of any others on 
the farm, and unless seasonably performed, irre¬ 
coverable loss is the consequence; hence the 
greatest attention is required for their due per¬ 
formance, and the closest economy should be 
practised in the consumption of their products 
in the barn and farm yard. But from the neg¬ 
ligent and wasteful manner that is often witness¬ 
ed among our farmers, one might readily sup¬ 
pose that they were of no moment, and required 
in their expenditure neither thought nor consid¬ 
eration. 
I ought, perhaps, before now to have brought 
this, I fear too prolix essay, to a close; but its 
importance must be my apology for its length. 
1 have not the vanity to say that the buildings 
and the plans I propose are the very best that 
can be suggested. 1 only say, that seven years 
experience has convinced me that, taken all to¬ 
gether, they are the cheapest in construction for 
the room afforded, and the easiest in the demand 
upon labor, that I have yet met with; and were 
I now to build again on like premises, I should 
not make a single alteration in the principle oi 
their construction. I hope the coming summer 
to have them all as well filled as at any time 
before, for I can assure you that no sight is 
more grateful to me than a spacious barn almost 
bursting with the fruits of a well toiled harvest, 
and a noble herd of animals near at hand to do 
ample justice to its abundance through a coming 
winter: thus consuming the forage of the farm, 
and returning to its soil valuable treasures of fer¬ 
tilizing stimulants; and yielding in their product, 
their increase, and their flesh a valuable profit 
to the intelligent and pains-taking husbandman. 
I shall make some remarks on the barn yard, 
the manure heaps, and the granary, in my next 
Black Rock, April 1842. L. F. A. 
