AMERICAN AGRIC LET CRIST 
FOR THE 
TAai-rn, GrarcLen, and. PConseliold. 
“AGHICCLTUUE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, ANO MOST NOltLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.” —Washington. 
omscre jppp compact, » ESTABLISHED IN 1842 . 
onL, 245 Wl.ni. ' { Published ,l.o C.e...... a, rale, a, i„ E» S 11,I,. \ *y5T«^.«fc!^,?SK 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in January, 1875, by the Orange Judd Company, at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXXIV.—No. 2. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1875. 
NEW SERIES—No. 337. 
Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
The barnyard may be taken as the index of the 
character of the farmer. As is the barnyard, 
so is the farm and the farmer. It is well that all of 
us should remember that in this case it is no figure 
of speech to say that “ straws show which way the 
wind blows.” The arrangement of the barnyard 
is not for show altogether. The profits of the 
farm depend to a great extent upon it. It is in the 
yard and the barns that the produce of the farm 
that is not sold outright is converted into beef, 
pork, mutton, wool, or milk and butter, articles 
that may be more profitably sold. It is in the yard 
also that the manure is made and kept. The barn 
and barnyard are the manufactory of the farm, and 
if they are not arranged with a view to economy, a 
large waste results that reduces the farmer’s profit. 
There are many thousands of such barnyards as 
that shown in the above engraving, The majority 
of farmers in this country from necessity begin 
business with small means, and do the best 
they can with the materials they possess. 
The excellence of farm buildings does not con¬ 
sist so much in the materials of which they are 
built, as in the use made of those materials. Use¬ 
ful buildings may be made of logs or prairie sods, 
or poles and coarse hay, and these, by skillful ar¬ 
rangement, may be made to serve as useful a pur¬ 
pose as dressed lumber and paint, or pressed bricks. 
The main points are warmth, dryness, and ventila¬ 
tion ; for food is wasted when an animal shivers in 
its stable, or when its health is injured by damp, 
filth, or bad air. The owner of the barnyard here 
illustrated has made good use of poor materials, 
and his ham has what many more pretentious ones 
have not, a wind-break to the stable door. A farm¬ 
er who is thoughtful about such small things as 
this, (although this is more important than it ap¬ 
pears,) may be taken to be a careful, thrifty man, 
who, by and by, will be able to build a barn with all 
the modem improvements, and to build it properly, 
too. The old proverb, “ take care of the small 
things, and the large ones will take care of them¬ 
selves,” is applicable to matters about farms, and 
barnyards especially. When the small things 
are well watched, large ones are not forgotten. 
