AMER LOAN AGrRIC UI /V U RIST. 
[December, 
503 
Trusses in Barn-building. 
Our barn-cellars, and often enough the principal 
floors of barns, are obstructed by piers or posts, 
which seriously interfere with the room, and yet 
more with their convenient use. A correspondent 
sends us sketches of his simple trusses. They are 
Fig. 1.—IRON BOLT FASTENING. 
of two forms: one in which the brace-beams are 
fastened to the tie-beam by alon^iron bolt, fig. 1; 
the other in which the brace-beams are notched in¬ 
to an upright post, shown in figure 2, the post be¬ 
ing bolted to the tie-beam by a bolt, holding by a 
nut let into the post like an bed-screw. This 
is shown in figure 3, which is a view of the truss 
from belo w, looking upward, sliowingthe iron-plate 
crossing the tie-beam of the truss, and support¬ 
ing the string-pieces on which the floorjoists rest. 
The sills and cross-beams of a barn, fifty feet 
Fig. 2.— WITH AN UPRIGHT WOODEN POST. 
each in the center. The trusses, 25 feet long, being 
made of 4 by 8 timber set edgeways. Incli-and-a- 
quarter iron bolts are needed, with half-inch wash¬ 
ers, both for the heads of the bolts and for the nuts. 
When the upper ends of the braces are mortised 
into a post (fig. 2), three-eighths or half-inch plate- 
iron should be used as shown in figure 3, instead of 
washers under the head of the bolt. There is room 
for such trusses on the 
outside, under the win¬ 
dows, and within the 
barn in the partitions 
—each side of the barn 
floor, and wherever 
partitions occur, as 
between bays. It is 
not difficult, with a 
little contrivance, to 
strengthen a cross¬ 
beam so as to take a 
post out almost anywhere where space is needed— 
in the cellar or elsewhere. Such a change, when 
made, will often be found so great a convenience in 
turning carts and wagons in a cellar, that the won¬ 
der will be that it had not been made long before. 
"How Pure Milk May be Supplied to 
Boston.” 
This is the title of a pamphlet embodying a plan 
submitted by the Worcester West Milk Producers’ 
Association to the producers and consumers of 
milk for the city of Boston. At the outset a very 
plain truth is stated in a very plain way : “ To sell 
milk as milk is probably more difficult than to sell 
anything else raised on the farm.” The present 
bad state of the milk trade is presented under the 
heading Adulteration: “ It is safe to say that the 
majority of well-to-do people in the city, not to 
speak of poor people, are supplied with milk 
which is a libel on the cow which is supposed to 
have produced it.” For this there is claimed to be 
a remedy. An organization is proposed similar to 
the notable Aylesbury Dairy Company that has 
been so successful in London, England. The capi¬ 
tal stock is divided into small shares, a portion of 
which is to be held by the consumers, the balance 
of the stock, and the larger part, to be in the hands 
of the farmers, the object being to get the largest 
number of producers and consumers interested 
who will work for the welfare of the company. 
The chairman of the State and City Boards of 
Health is to be, by virtue of his office, one of the 
directors of the company. A chemist is to be em¬ 
ployed to inspect the milk. “We believe the ma¬ 
jority of farmers are honest and never send to mar¬ 
ket any milk that has been watered. But human 
nature is weak, and farmers being human, it would 
do no harm to have them bolstered up by a chem¬ 
ist to keep them from going astray.” A similar 
organization has been in operation for eight years 
in the city of Syracuse, N. Y., with a success equal, 
though on a smaller scale, to the one in London. 
Under such a system each producer sells his own 
milk, because it is through a company of which he 
is a stockholder, with stock just in proportion to 
the amount of milk he has to sell. This is a matter 
which concerns other cities than Boston. The in¬ 
habitants of every town and city are interested in 
the milk supply, and the sooner some practical 
method can be devised for the distribution of ab¬ 
solutely pure milk the better it will be for both the 
consumers and the farmers who produce it. 
Tenant Houses on Farms. 
We are near the end, we trust, of a transition 
state, from dear and irregular labor to that which 
is cheap and steady upon our Northern farms. In 
the older States, since the war, the policy has been 
to get along with as little labor as possible, and to 
hire only in the summer by the month of day during 
seed-time and harvest. On hundreds of farms very 
little labor is employed beside that of the owner 
and his boys. The result is seen in the two facts 
that the population is waning in these districts, 
and many of the farms are for sale at first cost of 
the buildings upon them. In the olden time, in 
New England, we had cheap and abundant labor, 
and of the best kind. Farmers’ sons, trained from 
their boyhood to farm work, hired out for years 
to accumulate capital enough to stock a farm and 
start business for themselves. They lived in the 
families of their employers, and were skillful and 
reliable help. This class of labor is almost un¬ 
known now. The cities, the factories, the colleges, 
the schools, the new States and Territories take 
nearly all our farmers’ boys and girls, and we have 
to depend on foreigners for help. This is likely 
to be our main dependence in the future, and we 
must make the best of it. There is a reluctance 
to take them into the family as boarders, not so 
much on the score of prejudice, as of increased 
labor in the household. So the farm hand is hired 
ouly by the month or by the day, and much of his 
time is idle for want of employment. The farm 
suffei-3 for want of labor, and he suffers for the 
lack of employment. What, is wanted now is a 
cheap, comfortable farm cottage, where the laborer 
can have a steady home, and the farmer can have 
steady, reliable labor. The advantages of this 
course are manifold to both parties and to the com¬ 
munity. The farmer, in the cottage, makes a hand¬ 
some addition to his capital. It costs, say, six 
hundred dollars in money, material, and labor, 
most of which is furnished from the farm. This 
is to pay eight per cent interest on cost, to be paid 
in labor every month, say, four dollars a month. 
The fanner needs the work, and it is as good to 
him as the money. The investment is in his own 
hands, and more sure than savings bank or rail¬ 
road stock, as long as he runs a farm. He secures, 
also, steady, reliable help every day in the year, 
and can lay his plans to grow his crops, and make 
his improvements intelligently. He knows just 
wnat his labor is going to cost him, and what im¬ 
provements can be made. This labor, under his 
own training, is all the while increasing in skill 
and effectiveness, and he can use machinery in 
growing and harvesting crops to the best advan¬ 
tage. He also secures a good home market for a 
part of his farm products. His tenant has a wife 
and family, and the supplies of fuel and food would 
naturally come from the farm. Many other sup¬ 
plies of dry goods and groceries, would*come from 
the store where the farmer traded, and could be 
paid for in barter, so that rent and farm products 
would pay for from one-half to three-fourths of 
the labor bill. This arrangement would solve the 
question of board. Extra hands, if needed, could 
board at the cottage. The laborer would gain quite- 
as much as the farmer. He would have, to begim 
with, an employer interested in his welfare, and in 
the improvement of his skill and his moral condi¬ 
tion. He would have a fixed home, and the means 
of supporting his family in comfort. He would 
have remunerative employment for every day in the 
year that he was able to work. No time would be 
lost in waiting for a job, no apprehension of the 
failure of fuel and bread. He would have good 
schools and church privileges for his children-, and 
they would have as bright prospects in life as any 
of their neighbors. Society would gain very much 
by this arrangement. There would be two families 
instead of one on the farm, and if this custom 
should become general, there would be a large 
addition to these districts that are now waning in 
population and wealth. The school houses and 
churches would be well filled again. The farms 
would have plenty of labor, increase in productive¬ 
ness, and rise in value. In short, prosperity would 
be restored to these waning agricultural districts. 
Let us have Tenant Houses on our large farms* 
and secure for ourselves the many privileges that 
they will briug. Connecticut.. 
The Dung’ Heap. 
._—- 
The manure pile has been called, and not with¬ 
out good reason, the “Fountainhead of Benedic¬ 
tion.” Good farming in an old country (and we are 
not sure but in a new one also), begins with a strict 
economy at the manure heap, and the liquid fertil¬ 
izing elements that come from the farm animals. 
There are two distinct methods of saving this 
manure, namely, the dry and the wet way. In the 
former, absorbents, as dry earth, leaves, etc., are 
employed ; in the latter, all the liquid is received 
in tanks, and applied to the land in that form. If 
the dry or absorbent method is adopted, it is best 
to locate the stable on a side hill, that a manure 
cellar may be secured at little cost of excavation. 
Figure 1 shows a diagram of a stable with a manure 
cellar, 0, under the stable, provided with a door, 
E, for the removal of the manure. The floor of 
the stable should be of plank, with a gutter behind, 
and a trap door for passing the manure to the cellar 
below. A diagram of a stable for level ground is 
shown in figure 2. The cow stands upon the slanting 
floor, A, w'ith a depression, C, behind for the accum¬ 
ulation of the manure. This portion, as well as 
the floor under the cow, should be finished in 
cement. A passage for distributing food is at, 11, 
with a root cellar, Z>, below. There is a loft, E> 
above, for the storage of hay. Such a stable is 
especially designed for the keeping of one cow. 
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!Fig. 3.— BOTTOM OF TRUSS. 
