368 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
A Medium Sized Barn. 
Mr. Edward Pratt, Jackson Co., Mich., 
sends us plans and elevation of a barn which 
he thinks is well arranged for the conveni¬ 
ence of the general farm of 100 to 200 acres. 
He writes: “The plans show the general ar¬ 
rangement; the section of frame gives the 
disposition of middle bents with a clear open¬ 
ing for the use of hay fork and carrier. The 
basement is 9 ft. in clear; bight main build¬ 
ing posts, 20 feet. The basement timber is oak, 
the rest and covering is of pine. The cost is 
about $1,500. The bam fronts the east, with 
basement wall extending along the west side 
and across the north end. I find in building 
that there are a great many little conveni¬ 
ences that can be worked into a barn of this 
kind that are difficult to describe, but add 
much to handiness and ease of doing work.” 
Economic Feeding in Winter. 
BY PROF. J. W. SANBORN, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 
HANOVER, N. H. 
That kindness can be coined into cash in 
stock management, and that good sanitary 
conditions can boast of the “penny saved,” 
are admitted, but these are factors not in 
themselves, or in their products weighable, 
and we pass them, and similar conditions, 
for a brief notice of a few essential points 
relating to animal growth, and the increase 
of some of its products, the value of the 
observance of which, we can measure by that 
impressive standard, the dollar. 
Animal-heat is one product of the materi¬ 
als taken into the system by the animals. 
Excluding high or summer temperatures, 
the colder the day, or the lower the temper¬ 
ature surrounding the animal, the larger 
the share of the food consumed, that goes to 
maintain its necessary heat. The amount of 
food, required to maintain normal animal 
temperature, is modified in practice by 
at least three common methods. The more 
important of these I will name here : 
Warm stables, or those within which the 
temperature can be easily maintained higher 
than that outside, by preventing too free a 
circulation of the 
air. How to make 
such a stable, is a 
question which I do 
not propose to an¬ 
swer, but to consid¬ 
er the comparative 
value of such sta¬ 
bles. I may add that ; 
our College Farm I 
barn has upon close- I 
laid boards, a layer 
of heavy paper, 
covered by clap¬ 
boards. The stalls 
are ceiled up in a 
section of the barn, 
forming quarters 
where water will 
not freeze in win¬ 
ter. Leaving out 
some fine questions 
in physics, about 
heat-units, etc., let us enquire whether well 
constructed stalls will pay. All admit that in 
cold weather more food is eaten, but in prac¬ 
tice, most say that hay is cheaper than boards. 
Western men often openly maintain it. We 
must know what degrees of temperature 
mean, in pounds of hay or milk. Very many 
prolonged trials have shown me that the 
milk flow of cows fluctuates with the tem¬ 
perature, and in a marked degree when the 
inside temperature, as in an ordinary barn, 
follows closely the outside changes. The 
amount of the change of milk flow depends 
upon the length of time and intensity of the 
change of atmospheric temperature. A 
change of temperature of 1° for 10 days, 
will be clearly noticed in milk product, or 10 3 
for one or two days, will have unmis¬ 
takable effect on the amount of milk. I have 
collected a considerable material, yet prob¬ 
ably not enough for an exact statement, but 
the indications seem to be that a change of 
5° to 10° for a prolonged period, say a 
month, in temperature, is followed by nearly 
the same per cent in change of milk flow. 
Thus, everything else being equal, I should 
expect that a stable averaging 32° would 
show a milk flow on the same consumption 
of food of about 10 per cent more than would 
be the milk flow in one of an average tem¬ 
perature of 22°. Supposing each cow of 
the lot in the warmer stable, to give 10 qts. 
of milk per day, then each of the other loc 
would give but about 9 qts. A quart of 
milk per day, for 100 of our colder days, at 
2'/ 2 cts per qt., would give a saving of $2.50 
per cow. A somewhat similar result I ar¬ 
rived at by a different method. I ceiled up 
stalls for 15 cows at a cost of $30. I ascer¬ 
tained how much milk cows in these stables 
were giving each. Then two were put upon 
the other side of the barn for a month, and 
at the close of a month, the two lots of 
cows were exchanged, and the milk flow 
noted. The hay eaten was daily weighed 
for each lot; the weight of the cows noted, 
and the amount of butter from a given quan¬ 
tity of milk taken. The quality of the milk, 
so far as butter was concerned, and the weight 
of the cows were not seemingly affected by the 
temperature, the changes noted being in the 
amount of food eaten, and in the amount of 
milk flow. The food saved by the warmer 
stalls,was 8 lbs. stover, and 9 lbs. hay per cow, 
per day, and the increase of milk flow, 2.8 
per cent. With hay at $16 per ton, stover at 
$8, and a cow giving 10 qts. milk per day, 
worth 2 1 / 2 cts. per qt., we have a total in favor 
of the warmer stalls, of 11 cents per cow per 
day. These facts were carefully taken over a 
Fig. 4. —SECTION OP FRAME OF BARN. 
period of nearly 3 months, and in their results 
show that I nearly got the cost of improving 
the stable for the first winter, or about 100 
per cent interest for four months. The differ¬ 
ence in temperature of the ceiled stalls, and 
those of the open bam, was from 10° to 
12°. I will give an illustration of the effect 
of change of temperature, on a lot in stalls 
not closed from the open bam. Jan. 18 to 
28—yield 880 lbs. milk, temperature 1° be¬ 
low the freezing point. Jan. 29 to Feb. 7— 
yield 800 lbs., temperature 10° below 
freezing point, loss, 10 per cent. Many a 
farmer whose money is out at low rate of in¬ 
terest, on doubtful security, will find it prof¬ 
itable to invest in better stalls. How warm 
shall we attempt to maintain our stables? 
My impression is, that it will not be desirable 
to gain an average temperature above 45 to 
50° in cold weather, unless by artificial 
sources of heat, a higher temperature is 
gained by sacrifice of essential ventilation. 
I thought that in the trials, 45° gave 
me as good a result as a higher temperature. 
Others say that 60° is the most desirable. 
Advantages of a Rotation of 
Crops.— Different crops require food ele¬ 
ments in different proportions ; thus clover 
and roots need more potash and nitrogen 
than the grains. A rotation enables one kind 
of plant to work for another. Thus clover, a 
deep feeder, brings a large amount of plant- 
