1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
201 
A Medium Bank Barn. 
Mr. J. Binns, Jefferson Co., Ohio, erected a 
bam last year, of which plans are here given. 
It is on a side-hill, is 85 feet long, 36 feet wide, 
and 18 feet high from sill to plate in front. 
The elevation of the front is shown in figure 
1; the ground being made of easy grade up 
to the doors. Figure 2 shows the rear eleva¬ 
tion, and figure 3 the plan of the basement, 
which is 8'A feet high, and contains horse 
farm and hauled by the masons to where 
it was used as part of their contract. 
Breeding Turkies for Profit. 
D. Z. EVANS, JR. 
The turkey crop is an uncertain one. Late, 
wet spring months, followed by a noticeable 
absence of grasshoppers and other insects, 
result in a small number of turkies and con¬ 
liquid needed at this age from their moist 
(though not wet) food. Too much water causes 
colds, diarrhoea, and their attendant evils. 
Food. —This is a point on which breeders 
differ, but the system I have adopted in¬ 
variably gives us good results. I commence 
feeding with either “Cottage Cheese ” (Smear- 
Kase), mixed with finely chopped onion tops, 
lettuce, or parsley, seasoned with a trifle of 
Cayenne pepper; or else stale bread moist¬ 
ened with sweet milk is used. The bread is 
stalls, feeding passage, cattle and sheep pens, 
etc. The basement wall is of stone two feet 
thick except 24 feet on the front opposite the 
threshing floor, where it is three feet in 
thickness. The rear side is weather-boarded. 
Figure 4 shows the plan of the main floor; a, 
threshing floor, 20 feet wide ; b, entry to im¬ 
plement room ; c, wool room ; d, granaries, 
of tongued-and-grooved boards, with doors 
opening from threshing floor. A stairway 
leads to the basement; /, hay or grain mow, 
20 feet wide ; g, implement room ; h, work 
bench ; i, hay shute. 
ESTIMATED COST OP BARN. 
Mason work, quarrying stone and digging cellar.$250 00 
Cost of lumber for frame, flooring, etc. 286 60 
Bill of pine boards planed for siding granaries, etc. 197 46 
13,000 oak shingles. ... 100 00 
Carpenter work .. 340 00 
Expenses raising frame. 15 00 
Nails, hinges, locks, etc. 40 00 
Copper lightning rods. 73 33 
Tin spouting. 13 50 
Hay Carrier, rope, and putting up in barn. 28 11 
Paints and painting. 46 00 
Stone for foundation. 15 00 
Hauling logs and lumber with our own teams . 95 00 
Total.$1,5U0 U0 
Mr. B. writes us:—Many of the items are 
taken from the actual bills. But others I had 
to estimate. I engaged a portable steam saw 
Fig. 3.—PLAN OF BARN CELLAR. 
mill, which was set on a spring branch at the 
edge of the woods from which we had the 
timber cut. As the hard-wood timber was 
cut from timber growing on the farm, and 
most of the hauling was done with our own 
teams, the whole cost of the bam was not 
cash outlay, but I have estimated the timber 
and hauling at a moderate valuation. The 
stone for the foundation was quarried on the 
sequent high prices. Dampness is fatal to 
young turkies, especially those in the 
“downy” state. Young turkies are hardy 
after they have become fully feathered and 
are half grown ; they can then stand almost 
anything but foxes and chicken thieves. 
Early in spring the turkey hens seek a se¬ 
cluded place for nests. They should then be 
watched, but not disturbed, and when they 
have laid a fair clutch, say nine to eleven 
eggs, these should be gathered carefully and 
at once taken to the barn or hen house, and 
there set under a common hen. Taking the 
eggs from the turkey hen will cause her, 
usually, to hunt new quarters, and she should 
be permitted to hatch her second clutch of 
eggs. It is later in the season, and she will 
not endanger her young brood when strolling. 
By this means, two settings or broods can be 
secured from each turkey hen. The first 
brood being hatched in early spring, when 
the weather is more inclement, requires extra 
attention, and this is accorded more readily 
when under the care of a common hen. 
Care of the Young Birds. 
The young birds should be left under the 
hen for one day after they are hatched, to 
gam strength and become dry. They need 
no food during this time, and should be left 
undisturbed. Freedom from wet or damp¬ 
ness is absolutely essential to success in breed¬ 
ing turkies. Make a commodious coop for 
them, with a stout board bottom, the top being 
rain-proof. The coop should be slatted in 
front, that the young birds may run in and 
out. Arrange a board to close up the entrance 
during the night and when wet outside. A 
couple of common boards, a foot or eighteen 
inches wide, placed edgewise, make a §> 
shaped yard or run before the coop. Feed 
five times daily, but no more should be given 
than the birds will eat up clean. Clean the 
coop every day or two, after which it should 
be sprinkled with fresh, clean and dry sand. 
All young poultry, and especially turkies, 
are better without any water for the first two 
or three weeks; they get all the water or 
soaked in the milk and squeezed as dry as 
possible with the hand before feeding it. 
This is excellent feed, and is my main de¬ 
pendence for all kinds of young fowls. Corn 
meal should not be fed to young turkies. 
When two weeks old give them a run with 
the hen outside the yard, during the middle 
of the day ; they should never be permitted 
to run out while there is dew on the grass. 
li 78a si ci risi ”.— A soil run down 
by long cropping, can be brought back to fer¬ 
tility by green manuring. At first it may be 
even difficult to get a good growth of any 
plant, without the use of some commercial 
fertilizer. Peruvian guano is excellent to give 
this start, after which the plowed-under crop 
will aid the next one, and so on until the soil 
becomes well-filled with plant food. Buck¬ 
wheat is a close feeder, and is a good first 
crop; clover may follow, and, when a fair 
growth of this is obtained, the soil will bear 
other crops. After land has been brought up 
to reasonable fertility by green manuring, 
it should be kept there by the addition of 
manure from the barn-yard, or by the use of 
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Fig. 4.—PLAN OF MAIN FLOOR. 
commercial fertilizers.—It is poor farming 
that runs down the soil; but if it is already 
down, it is wise to bring it up in the cheapest 
and quickest way possible. Manuring with 
crops that are close and deep feeders, like 
those above mentioned, will aid in this, and 
any manure that may be used with these, 
only hastens the work of restoration. 
