I 860 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
241 
room above. There is a trap-door above, outside 
the poultry room, to let down straw for bedding. 
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Fig. 3. —Plan of Main or Geound Floor. 
The Cow Stalls, m, m, in the north-east corner, 
are 8 by 6£, and 8 by 5, the larger one for milk¬ 
ing in. They are separated by a gate. These 
are also provided with a trap-door, t, for manure, 
and another above to let down straw. The 
Feed Room, F, 5xl8£ is arranged between the 
heads of the stalls, with a door at either end, and 
gates to shut it off from the horse and cow stalls. 
The feed box, b, is lined with galvanized iron, and 
has a pump from the cistern, the spout stand¬ 
ing over the right end. Over the center of the 
feed box are five spouts coming down from above 
with slide bottoms—the four smaller ones 
from four feed and grain bins in the loft, and the 
larger one to let down cut hay or straw. Anoth¬ 
er larger slide, the lower end above the head, and 
the upper end covered with a trap-door, lets long nora^a 
hay down at the left end of the feed room. A | 
trap-door to the cellar, t, is for taking up roots for | 
the animals. These feed, grain, and hay slides, 
are a decided convenience... .K, is a cool room, 
thoroughly separated from the stables, and ven¬ 
tilated from the outside. Shelves are to be ar¬ 
ranged in this for Autumn storage of fruits, and 
certain kinds of vegetables. A large trap-door, t, 
and stairs, are provided for direct communica¬ 
tion with the cellar. 
Fig. 4. Second Story. — L, is the general hay 
and straw loft, which gives ample storage, as it is 
feet high at the plates, and can be filled up to 
the ridge-pole. 0, 0, are rooms for general stor¬ 
age, especially for drying garden seeds. D, is a 
sleeping room for a man, accessible by the nar¬ 
row stairs leading up from the work-shop and 
implement room. These stairs are closely board¬ 
ed over, which allows hay to be piled on them 
without being exposed to taking fire from any 
light carried up to the sleeping room. The main 
stairway is also boarded over to allow hay to be 
piled over it. The Poultry Room, P, is board¬ 
ed up on the outside, and thoroughly plastered 
on the inside to guard against insects. The 
laying boxes c, are provided with stepping boards 
in front, and they are placed far enough from the 
wall to admit going behind them for taking out 
eggs, and for cleaning them. The front of each 
box is closed except an entrance in one corner 
large enough for a fowl, so that the laying or 
setting hens are screened from sight. A board 
hung on hinges is placed behind each horizontal 
tier of laying boxes, which can be partly open 
for ventilation, or be turned up for ready access 
to the nests. The roosting poles are laid upon 
three strips inclined against the wall. These 
poles and the boxes are movable, so that every 
part can be ta- 
ken out and 
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! cleansed and 
I white-washed 
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as often as may 
be needed. The 
room can be pu¬ 
rified with 
fumes of burn¬ 
ing surphur, or 
with chloride of 
lime. The 
fowls are readi¬ 
ly taught to go 
up and down 
their enclosed 
passage way by 
dropping a lit¬ 
tle corn upon 
the ladder, 
made of narrow 
strips nailed on 
extends from the 
The lower 
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a board. An open pipe 
poultry room to the gable ventilator, 
sashes of the outside windows are shielded with 
woven wire so that these sashes can be left up 
for free admission of air except in very cold weath¬ 
er. The location of this room on the south side 
makes it warmer in Winter. The fowls have 
free range of the yard which is surrounded by 
pickets above the fence. They have also admis¬ 
sion to the manure cellar by a fowl ladder in the 
outside area (A, W, fig. 3). 
The various bins, z, z, z, z, trap-doors, slides 
for hay, x, i, straw, t , t, and grain, etc., referred 
to in the description of the main or ground floor, 
Fig. 4 —Plan of Second Floor. 
are indicated in fig. 4. Two pipes, v, v, from the 
horse and cow stalls are seen coming up through 
the floor; they extend to the ventilators in the 
sub-pediment or gable, and convey off all foul air. 
SPECIFICATIONS AND CONTRACT. 
As a guide to others who have occasion to 
build, we present below an exact copy of the spe¬ 
cifications and contract made for erecting the 
above buildings ; and we here remark, that it is 
always desirable to have such specifications, 
naming every item possible. This enables one to 
know what his structure is to cost, and prevents 
after disagreements. In the present instance 
the specifications were so definite that on the 
completion of the structure the total sum of 
extra charges amounted to barely $2£—for some 
few items not thought of at first. (It is due to 
the builders, Wm. Post, and Wm. Post, Jr., to 
say, that everything was done in the best man¬ 
ner, and neither the proprietor nor the superin¬ 
tendent found a single cause of complaint with 
respect to materials or workmanship.) As a 
general rule, we prefer the employment of a pro¬ 
fessional architect, when a competent and reli¬ 
able one can be obtained. For a small sum, 3 to 
5 per cent on the job, such a person will make 
all needed drawings, and watch the work from 
beginning to end. The proprietor thus has the 
assistance of one who is experienced in such 
matters, and is usually saved much more than the 
cost of such assistance, in the better work and 
materials secured. 
Specifications of the materials and labor required in the 
erection of a combined barn , coach-house, stable, etc., 
according to the plans and elevations of the same, as 
represented in Jigs. 1, 2, 3, and 4. Prepared by W. 
H. Ranlett, Architect, N. Y. city. 
The Mason to make all the necessary excavations for 
the cellars, foundation walls, cistern and areas ; grade 
the surplus earth properly around the building on a slope 
of H in. to the foot, and remove all rubbish when the 
building is complete. The manure and vegetable cellars 
to extend under all the stalls and the large coach room, 
with proper divisions, areas, and outlets. The walls of the 
manure cellar laid up 18 inches thick with hydraulic ce¬ 
ment mortar, 3 parts sharp sand and 1 part cement; the 
division wall to be bedded 6 in. deeper than the outside 
walls and built up to the floor ; vegetable cellar and foun¬ 
dation walls, 18 in. thick, laid up with best lime mortar ; 
cellar 6j feet deep; dwarf walls 3 feet high; all the 
walls laid up with good building stone. Cistern made 
oval, 20 feet by 8 feet, in the clear, and V feet deep, with a 
partition across the center ; the walls laid up with bricks 
in best cement mortar, 2 parts sand and 1 of cement— 
4 incites thick and grouted behind—the bottom laid with, 
brick upon the edge and grouted with cement, and the 
whole interior to be well plastered with cement mortar' 
and washed; to be 8 by 1C inch brick piers where required-' 
in the cellars ; also circular area walls of brick around! 
the cellar window's. 
The fowd room to* 
be lathed and plas¬ 
tered, one heavy 
coat of lime, sand,, 
and hair mortar,, 
whitewashed. 
The Carpenter tO> 
furnish and put up a 
good frame of sound 
spruce or pine sawed 
timber, well framed 
and braced in every 
part; the sills, posts, 
and plates, 4x8 and: 
4x9 ; girts and inter¬ 
ties 4x6 ; first tier of 
beams 3x9, set 24 
inches apart; second 
tier 3x9, 16 inches 
between centers, 
with one tier of cross 
bridging over the 
coach room; chest¬ 
nut girders 6x6 ; val. 
ley rafters 2x10 
main rafters 2x9, and. 
jack rafters If by 8,. 
set 20 inches apart,, 
bevel joints cut true and strongly nailed up; the roofi 
strongly supported on the cross girts ; door studs 4x6, all 
olher studding 3x4 set 24 inches apart. The sides covered; 
with best sound i pine boards, planed, rebated, and strong, 
ly nailed on with 8d nails in every stud, post and brace,, 
and not over 5j inches to the weather, and lap not less.- 
than one inch ; water table project 4 inches and beveled ,, 
corner boards If inch thick properly made. 
Cornices on all the sides to be made as represented om 
the elevation, and put up with moldings and brackets 
complete—the brackets 14 in. long, 10 in. high, 4 in*, 
thick, and put up in couples on each side. For the Roof: 
rafters covered with good sound hemlock boards, with 
close joints, and overlaid with best single cross charcoal 
tin, put on in the most approved manner, and all the rosin 
removed from the tin before painting ; 4 in. tin leaders to 
convey all the water from the roof to the erstern. Win¬ 
dowframes made and the sashes fitted, the lov/er sash to 
slide up; glass 10x14, with 8 panes to each window«, 
