58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
■which will help to make the description clearly 
understood. The basement is 60 feet long and 24 
feet wide, and 7 feet high in the clear; the walls 
containing 70 perches of stone-work. The floor 
above is supported by two rows of pillars, the out¬ 
side row, seen in the engraving, are 2 feet by 6, the 
inside ones are 2 feet square. The barn is 48 feet 
wide. The floor of the cow-stable (fig. 2), which 
is over the basement, rests upon joists which are 
laid upon cross-sills, which reach from the ends of 
the front pillars to the rear ones. The joists rest 
upon the cross-sills as far as the latter reach, and 
then upon the pillars. The cross-sills are 10 inches 
square. There is thus a drop of 10 inches in the 
floor upon which the cows stand and immediately 
behind them. This drop ( h , fig. 2) is four feet 
wide, and forms a passage in which the manure 
collects, and from which it may be pushed through 
the side of the drop into the basement below. The 
liquids from the cows drain through this open space 
on to the manure in the 
basement. The floor 
upon which the cows 
stand (seen at g) is 6 
feet wide. In front of 
the basement there is a 
fenced yard in which 
is a permanent spring. 
Here the cattle run for 
exercise; a passage¬ 
way, seen above the 
arches in the engraving, leading from the stable-door 
to the yard. There are fourteen stalls for cows, (g, 
fig. 2), each of which is four feet wide. The parti¬ 
tions between the stalls are formed in the manner 
shown in fig. 5. In each stall is a manger and a 
feed-box. The cows are tied with rope-halters 
around their necks. There is a passage (/) between 
the cow’s-stable and the horse-stable (c). In the 
horse-stable there are seven single horse-stalls, 
and two closed loose boxes. Each single stall is 
five feet wide. When the 
horse-stable is cleaned, 
a wagon is driven into 
the shed behind it (6), 
the manure is thrown 
into the wagon, and at 
once hauled away wher¬ 
ever it may be wanted. 
The floor of the horse- 
stable is on the ground. 
The partitions between 
the horse - stalls are 
made as shown in fig. 4. At fig. 6 is shown the crane 
upon which to hang harness, one being fixed in the 
wall behind each horse. The post of the crane is 
made of 3x4 scantling; the ends are rounded and 
swing in large staples. The arm is made of 1x6 
stuff, and is 3 feet long. The shed (&) is used for 
storing tools and wagons, or for housing sheep, 
and has a door (a) at each end. One door opens 
into a yard, through which the road, seen in the 
engraving, runs. Here the straw and corn-stalks 
are stacked, and a great portion of them are here 
fed to the stock to make manure. No water from 
the barn runs into this yard, or on to the manure. 
The stables are 8 feet high, and the barn above the 
stables is 18 feet high. The plan of the barn floor 
is shown at fig. 3; at a is the main floor; at 6, 5, 
are the entrance doors, to which a sloping drive¬ 
way, abutting against the wagon-shed, leads. The 
rear doors ( c , c) are hung upon rollers, and in fig. 1 
are seen partly open. 
At d is the trap for hay, 
leading to the feed- 
passage below, and e, e, 
are traps for straw used 
for bedding, leading in¬ 
to the stables. The 
granaries are seen at /, 
/, and there are spouts 
from these leading into g —harness crane. 
the wagon-shed, so that 
sacks upon the wagon can be filled from the spouts. 
The passage to the granaries is at g ; it is 8 feet 
wide, and a work-bench and tools are kept here. 
The staircase leading down to the feed-passage is 
seen at h, and also at i, fig. 2. The trap-doors are 
on hinges and are double. The floor is also double, 
so that no dust can fall through to the floor below, 
nor any disagreeable vapors arise therefrom. This 
story is 18 feet clear, the roof being a t.russ-roof 
and self-supporting. The roof is shingled with 
pine shingles, and the whole of the barn is covered 
with pine weather-boarding, and painted. Mr. Kyle 
is kind enough to say that he got the ideas for this 
barn and the manure cellar from the American 
Agriculturist , in the frequent discussions about 
these matters, although in carrying them out, his 
plan is wholly his own. After having used the 
barn, he thinks the arrangements are the best he 
has seen. There are certainly many excellent 
points about it, and this description will be of great 
service to many who are thinking of building barns. 
The Use of Oil-Cakes. 
The yearly production of flax-seed in the United 
States, is about 120 million pounds, or two million 
bushels. This is almost wholly used for the manu¬ 
facture of oil. The refuse cake, or oil-cake, left 
after the oil is expressed from this quantity of seed, 
amounts to about 80 million pounds, or 40,000 tons. 
This is nearly nil exported, a small part only being 
used here. The feeding value of this quantity of 
oil-cake represents about 16 million pounds of 
beef and mutton, and a large quantity of wool and 
hides. The loss to the country, through the export 
of this quantity of a most valuable feeding ma¬ 
teria], is equal to the profit which would result 
from the making all this meat, wool, and hides. If 
the profit upon every pound of meat so made, 
should be 5 cents, the amount would reach a value 
of $800,000. In addition to this, there is lost the 
value of the manure that would be made from feed¬ 
ing 40,000 tons of oil-cake. This is estimated by 
Mr. Lawes at about $25 per ton of oil-cake. The 
value of this would be a million dollars, and the 
total amount of the loss we sustain by shipping 
away the linseed oil-cake we produce, may be stat¬ 
ed at $1,800,000 every year. Through our own 
want of enterprise, we allow our competitors 
abroad to make this handsome sum of money every 
year, out of the materials we furnish to them, and 
which we might and should use ourselves. But 
this is not all. The English people are our custom¬ 
ers for wheat, corn, pork, beef, butter, and cheese. 
This they cannot avoid. And the quantity of these 
necessaries of life we sell to them, depends in a 
great measure upon the amount of each they are 
able to produce. The less they produce the more 
we shall sell to them. The English market for 
beeves greatly needs a supply from us, but we 
have not the cattle to spare. In fact we are really 
helping our competitors to increase their products, 
and at the same time reduce our own, thus ac¬ 
tually, to a considerable extent, destroying our 
market for what we do produce. This is one of 
many reasons why our agriculture is not so prosper¬ 
ous or as profitable as it might be, and one of the 
unbusiness-like ways in which we as a people carry 
on our farming. But the loss here pointed out, is a 
very insignificant one compared with that resulting 
from our method of using cotton-seed. Our yearly 
product of cotton-seed is about two-and-a-half 
million tons, or five thousand million pounds. 
When freed from the husk, or “decorticated,” 
more than two-thirds of this vast quantity is left, 
which, as an article of food for domestic animals, 
is of even greater value than linseed. This is equi¬ 
valent to 700 million pounds of meat, and that re¬ 
maining in the shape of manure (after having fed 
the seed and turned it into cattle or meat) is worth 
fifty millions of dollars. At ten cents a pound for 
the meat, this product w r ould be seventy millions of 
dollars, giving a total loss resulting from the want 
of economical management of the crop of cotton¬ 
seed, of $120,000,000 yearly. Some portion of this 
is saved in the rough method in which the seed is 
used as a fertilizer in the south, but it is quite 
reasonable to take this sum as the amount that 
southern farmers yearly permit to slip through 
their fingers for w r ant of good business manage¬ 
ment. No business can stand such waste. The 
consequence is that southern agriculture is actually 
the poorest industry in existence, and southern 
farmers complain of poverty and debt, and vainly 
try to give their land away to immigrants, from 
whom they hope for relief. There is an old but true 
adage about wilful waste, which is applicable here. 
Measuring for Horse-Collars. 
Horse-collars are rarely made to fit the neck and 
shoulders of the w r earers. It is too often the case 
that any collar that can be readily procured, is 
made to serve the purpose after a fashion, and 
galled necks or shoulders is the usual inevitable 
consequence. Few farm horses are free from galls 
