334 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
For the American Agriculturist. 
A Cheap Cistern. 
Two years ago tlie coming month, I dug a 
hole for a cistern, 9 feet deep—9 feet across at 
top, and 7 feet across two feet below the surface 
—this left a shoulder or breech into which I 
placed two timbers for beams, and on these plank 
for a covering immediately over the cistern. A 
mason plastered it with Rosendale hydraulic ce¬ 
ment, directly on the earth. It has never been dry 
since four weeks after it was finished, and ac¬ 
cording to my figures, holds nearly 63 barrels. It 
is perfectly tight now, except the spout and man¬ 
hole. It has never leaked out nor in. No surface 
water can drain in, and had I known how cheap, 
and with how little trouble it could be made, I 
should have had one long before. 
The cost was as follows : 
1 bbl. Rosendale cement.$4-00 
1 day plastering and board. 
IK day in digging and board. 1.50 
103 feet Lumber. 
My time, nails, etc.. .. 1.50 
Total cost of Cistern.'. .$9.78 
The sand was mixed with the cement—only 
as fast as used —2 parts of sand to 1 of cement. 
There are sixty feet of gutter to my house. 
F 071 du Lac Co., Wi's. JOHN C. BlSHOP. 
Remarks.— The above cheap method of mak¬ 
ing cisterns is much used in this region, and they 
generally do well where there is a firm hard 
soil to plaster upon. When locust poles and flag¬ 
stones to lay on them can be obtained for the 
covering, it may be placed two feet or more un¬ 
der ground. The locust timber will last a cen¬ 
tury. Red cedar is also pretty durable.— Ed.] 
-- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Barn Cisterns. 
I have had one in use for six years, and it has 
worked so well, and been so great a convenience, 
that I can safely recommend it as a good in¬ 
vestment. The barn stands upon a side hill, 
the main entrance being upon the third story, 
the cattle stalls upon the second, and the cel¬ 
lar and pig sty upon the first. The cistern is 
upon the second story, in the rear of the cattle 
stalls, leaving room for a walk and root bins 
between. It is about sixteen feet square and 
will hold some three hundred barrels. The 
walls of the cellar on three sides were used for 
the walls of the cistern and the fourth wall was 
made of heavy stone, two feet thick laid in mor¬ 
tar, to stand the lateral pressure. The inside was 
thoroughly cemented. The barn floor above 
was also laid double, and cemented to prevent 
dust from falling into the cistern. There is a 
free circulation of air above the cistern walls, to 
prevent the rotting of the floor. A pipe and 
stopcock communicate with the feeding room, 
where pure soft water is always ready for the 
cattle. Four cows are kept in the stables dur¬ 
ing the foddering season, and a horse the year 
round. The supply of water has been uninter¬ 
rupted, except for a day or two the present 
season, when the cistern was cleaned out, and 
coated anew with a wash of cement. 
All the water that falls upon the roofs of the 
barn and adjacent sheds, is turned into the 
cistern by gutters and pipes. The whole origi¬ 
nal cost of the arrangement did not exceed forty 
dollars. The expense for repairs has not been 
a dollar, as nothing has been done, but the 
cleaning of a pipe and the cleaning of the cis¬ 
tern and the washing of the walls with cement. 
This aryangement has several important ad¬ 
vantages, The Wftter that would otherwise go 
into the yard, making it a mud hole in Winter, 
now goes into the cistern even in wet weather. 
It is a great nuisance to have cattle miring 
knee deep in mud in mid-winter. 
The water which the cattle drink, is always of 
the best quality, sweet and clean. It may be 
fancy, but they seem to like it better than spring 
or brook water. The watering as well as the 
feeding is immediately under the eye of the 
owner, and he can make sure that the cattle 
have water every day in Winter, without the 
trouble of following them half a mile to a frozen 
brook, and cutting a hole in the ice. 
It is better than a trough fed by a pipe in the 
yard, which is frozen much of the time in Win¬ 
ter, and is apt to be surrounded witli ice, mak¬ 
ing it difficult for cattle to stand. It is a great 
disadvantage to cattle to give them water near 
the freezing point. It takes a certain portion of 
their food to raise the temperature of this water 
to the natural heat of the body. 
As a rule it will be found quite as economi¬ 
cal to have a cistern under the barn, as to bring 
in spring water from a distance. The outlay 
for lead pipe is large, and it is always liable to 
be frozen, or to get out of repair in other ways. 
If cattle are all stabled during the Winter, as 
they should be, the necessary roofing will fur¬ 
nish an abundant supply of water. If no spring 
is available, a cistern has still greater advan¬ 
tages. A water ram often involves a larger ex¬ 
pense, and is much more liable to get out of re¬ 
pair. A cistern is available for all locations 
where there are neither springs nor running 
streams. If arranged upon the same floor with 
the cattle stalls, no pumping need be done. A 
small pipe will conduct the water into the stalls 
if it is desired, and by turning a stopcock the 
whole herd may be watered at once from a 
trough running through the mangers. Put down 
a barn cistern as among the first jobs for a 
leisure spell. Connecticut. 
-- ■e -O-g g -*-«■- 
For the American Agriculturist, 
Storing Roots for Winter. 
As the season is now at hand when all root- 
crops should be safely housed for Winter, we 
call attention to the subject. That roots should 
enter largely into the diet of all sorts of stock, 
no intelligent farmer will deny. How to keep 
them sound in the best manner, and convenient 
of access, is the question now to be looked at. 
Some persons having plenty of cellar-room 
under the dwelling-house, store them there. 
This is better than nothing; but such cellars 
are apt to be so warm and close, that the roots 
decay, filling the apartments above witli un¬ 
pleasant odors,and producing considerable waste. 
Whenever the house cellar is so used, it should 
be that portion the furthest removed from the 
heated rooms above. There should be small 
windows in the cellar walls, hung on hinges, 
or sliding, so that they can be opened and shut 
at pleasure. But this plan has the additional 
objection of requiring the roots to be carried 
daily from the house to the barn. This, especi¬ 
ally in rainy weather and deep snows, is un¬ 
pleasant and laborious. A better way, on many 
accounts, is to store the roots at the barn, where 
they are to be used. For doing this, several 
methods have been employed : 
1. Dig a cellar for the barn, like that for the 
house. Give it suitable drainage from the walls, 
through an underground ditch. Lay up the stone 
walls in good lime mortar, pointing the whole 
so a§ to exclude frost and mice. The cellar 
should be seven feet high in the clear. Amplo 
provision should be made for ventilation through 
the windows, which should be of double sash or 
double glass, to exclude frost. The windows 
should be movable, so as to be easily opened or 
closed as desired. 
A difference of opinion prevails as to the fea¬ 
sibility of stabling animals in cellars. If made 
dry, light, and airy, they answer for all animals 
excepting horses. For these we would prefer 
stables entirely above ground. Where the cel¬ 
lar is partly used for stabling, the following 
plan will answer: On one side of the base¬ 
ment—the lightest, driest, and most airy side— 
partition off a section for the cattle stalls; lath 
and plaster the dividing walls. These stalls will, 
of course, be made in such a manner as to con¬ 
tribute most to the health and comfort of the an¬ 
imals. The other section should be arranged for 
storing roots. On the sides of this room, tiers 
of shelves are to be put up, supported by scant¬ 
ling of sufficient strength. These shelves are to 
have narrow pieces of plank nailed on the front 
and sides, so as to make each shelf contain about 
six inches deep of roots. The design of such a 
tier of shelves is to prevent the roots lying to¬ 
gether in dense masses, and so heating and rot¬ 
ting. Stored in this way, the air will circulate 
among the shelves, and reach every root. 
To get the roots into this cellar, a door or 
large window must be provided, with a slide, 
leading from the' outside into the store-room. 
After the roots are once unloaded on the bottom 
of the cellar, they can be sorted over and stack¬ 
ed upon the shelves, at leisure. This cellar 
should be kept as cool as possible without freez¬ 
ing. Carrots will bear a slight nip from old 
“ Jack,” and be little worse for it. 
2. A slight modification of this plan, where 
quarry-stone are not abundant, is to lay up 
the walls with hard-burnt brick or cobble¬ 
stones. If the region is very cold, and frost ia 
not easily kept from such cellars, place the cat¬ 
tle stalls on the outer sides of the basement, and 
the root-cellar in the middle. (.Horse-stables, it 
will be understood, are to be made above ground.) 
Special provision will need to be made for ven¬ 
tilating this mid-cellar. The roots can be 
conveniently dumped into their place through a 
slmte in the outer wall, or through a trap-door 
in the floor overhead. 
3. Hill-side barns are thought by some to be 
particularly favorable for storing roots. A cor¬ 
respondent in one of your cotemporaries, sug¬ 
gests the following plan, which is very good: 
“ A barn 40 by 60 feet will hold four rows of 
cattle, containing fifteen head in a row, seven 
double stalls and one single one, allowing four 
feet for each animal. The two ends may be 
fitted up for cattle, and the middle apartment 
for sheep, witli a root-house behind, 10 by 30 
feet, or larger if desirable. This makes a very 
convenient and warm place for cattle and sheep, 
and a root-house holding 3,000 bushels. It may 
be enlarged to the length of the barn if neces¬ 
sary. The stalls should be on the sides of the 
barn, fifteen feet deep, heading toward the cen¬ 
ter. In front of the stalls may be passage-ways 
four feet wide, leading from the root-cellar, 
around the center space, from which the feed 
can be placed in the troughs on either side. Hay, 
straw, etc., can be put down through trap-doors, 
from the threshing-floor above.” 
4. But in many cases, the farm barn is already 
built, and without any provision made for cel¬ 
lar-room. In such case, a root-cellar can bq 
constructed along side of the barn, on its most 
sheltered side, Pig a cellar and wall it up ia q 
