The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The studding from the upper stable floor to the roof 
may he lighter, as it carries the weight of the roof 
only. 
In regard to the foundation wall, it would he a 
difficult proposition to build a hollow concrete wall 
of sufficient strength and still keep it down to the 
thickness permis^ble. A 10-in. single wall is suffi¬ 
ciently strong, and as this is located near the floor 
in the coldest part of the stable, it does not permit 
the escape of as much heat as at first thought seems 
probable. Many barns are built with single glazed 
sash, and when properly lighted these windows will 
comprise roughly one-eighth of the side wall area, 
making much greater heat outlet than the narrow 
belt of concrete at the base of the wall. However, 
if desired, tiie inner ceiling can be carried down over 
this to tiie floor, if desired, making an effective heat 
insulation. 
Plans for a Dairy Barn 
In these days tlu* ordinary dirt farmer must as a rule 
be his own architect, designer and often builder. Any 
mistakes in barn building arc usually hard to remedy, 
and have to be endured for at least a generation. A 
dairy farm is not much better than its stable. .Sketch 
shows general arrangement of a proposed dairy barn 
to accommodate a total of 23 head of cattle. We 
would like some additional information as to some 
points of this structure. As you will note, the barn is 
34 ft. by 68 ft. long. The ceiling is to be 8 ft. 6 iu. 
high. Four square feet of glass area will be allowed 
for each animal. The studding will be 2x6, with 
matched hoarding, tar paper and novelty siding or 
clapboards on the outside. The inside will he either 
ceiled with matched % -in. lumber and whitewashed, or 
lathed, plastered and whitewashed. All windows to be 
provided with storm sash. The King system of ventila¬ 
tion would require a combined Hue area of 671 in. for 
the intakes and about 10 per cent less for tlu* out-take 
flues, which will discharge 35 ft. above the ground. 
Making a deduction of 1,130 cubic feet for the feed room 
gives a net space of 17.381 cubic feet. This divided by 
23. the number of animals, shows a space of 756 cubic 
feet per head. Will this stable be warm enough V 
Would I better reduce the height of the ceiling to ~V -2 
ft.? In this Northern New York section we often have 
nights that are 20 degrees below zero and occasionally 
50 below. 
A concrete foundation extending below the frost line 
is planned. The size of the footing is ;ts yet undeter¬ 
mined, depending of course upon the 
character of the soil ami tlu* weight 
of the structure and contents. Will a 
12-in. wall from the fooling to the 
ground level be sufficientV The wall 
is to be IS in. above the ground. Will 
it be safe to make this ,8 in. thick with 
an air space extending 24 in. down? 
Would the portion of wall outside of 
the air space be sufficient to carry 
anchor bolts on alternate sides? What 
is wanted is a wall that is 100 per 
cent efficient, suitable for the need and 
no more; one that will safely bear the 
load and not permit the frost and cold 
'to pass through and reduce the Tem¬ 
perature of the stable. It is folly to 
provide an otherwise tight structure 
and leave a non-insulated strip of 
concrete IS in high entirely around 
the stable. The point is, bow can I 
best secure this insulation? 
I low would the cost of ceiling the 
inside of the stable with 74-in. matched 
hoards compare with metal lath and 
plaster as to cost and warmth? flow 
does lumber, brick, concrete and tile 
compare as to first cost, durability and 
warmth when used in building the 
stable walls? o. a. w. 
St. Lawrence Co.. X. Y. 
simply our old friend .Toe. Various people tried Joe 
and found him a joy, and then renamed him to suit 
their trade. Most of them have now settled upon 
Big Joe as tiie most appropriate name, and the 
variety is still “going strong." We fruited it this 
year by tiie side Of Marshall. Dunlap, Chesapeake. 
Handy and Howard. A group of three typical ber¬ 
ries is shown at Fig. 380. Of course tiie berries are 
not all as large as these here shown, but there were 
many even larger, It does not have the dark color 
of Marshall or of a well-ripened Chesapeake, and it 
cannot compare with Marshall in quality, but it 
ripens all over: that is. it does not have a green and 
seedy tip. as Chesapeake often does. We found it 
As an inside covering wood ceiling would be the a heavy yielder. hardy, and a good plant-maker. It 
warmest, provided it was sufficiently tight, and there is particularly useful on light soil, and does not re- 
is usually suflieieut dampness in a stable to keep it quire the petting and heavy feeding which Marshall 
s'; (luring the cold months when the cattle are must have. It would make a good variety for hill 
« i culture where the runners are to be 
\ J cut off. On the whole. Joe or Big 
we s r Joe. as it is named in most of the 
> --- 38'-6 -- *-4 '-<k— 40-8 —ea ta logues, 
is a very desirable 
variety—for our location at least, 
and we shall propagate it fully for 
next season. 
College Students and Hired 
Men 
I WILL l eg to take issue with W. 
A. Hawley, on page 830. over the 
above caption. Mr. Hawley evi¬ 
dently has had very good luck in 
getting "hired men." but I doubt 
that he knows all about college men. 
To say that college students are 
food workers or bad workers is just 
about as logical as it would be to 
say that blue-eyed or brown-eyed 
men were good or bad workers. Be¬ 
sides. I do not think it at all fair to 
say that the hoy goes to college to 
get out of work. The very fact that 
the young man of is is in college 
goes to prove that lie is not afraid 
of work. For every such young fel¬ 
low who gets there you may depend 
that 10 or 20 have fallen by the 
wayside, to drop into manual labor, 
where they do just as much as they 
have to. 
P r Of course there are hundreds of 
hoys who are "sent" to college be- 
cause their fond parents think that 
is the proper thing to do with them 
and. maybe, with a secret sense of 
relief that they may expect to get 
them off their hands for four years 
or more. But I do not think that 
this class of boys comes into con¬ 
sideration in the matter. They 
would not work, whether they went 
_J to college or elsewhere. But the boy 
who goes to college with the idea of 
fitting himself for a more useful Ife 
through a broader viewpoint of life 
in general will dig a better ditch ( if occasion should 
require hint to dig a ditch) than he would before 
he went. 
Last Winter I wanted some firewood cut. There 
were plenty of loafers about town, but they didn't 
care to chop wood. I put a little advertisement in 
the local paper, and one day a young man walked 
up to the door and asked for that woodcutting job. 
He was a student in tiie nearby college (Colgate) 
and said he needed both the money and the exercise. 
I gave him the job, and he cut 25 cords, with the 
help of five or six others who fell by the wayside, 
one at a time. Then 1 hired him during Faster vaca¬ 
tion, and later all the time lie could give me until 
the close of school. Then he went home to another 
State to help his father with the haying, saying he 
would surprise “Dad" with his physical condition. 
For it seems that "Dad" had doubts about the value 
of the hoy’s going away to college, and predicted that 
lu would come home in no shape to pitch hay, to 
say nothing of the "highfalutin’" ideas that he 
would nick up. 
During the Spring this young fellow broke in a 
pair of colts to plow and harrow, and while he 
accomplished a surprising amount of work with 
them, he did not blister a shoulder or caulk a foot. 
The fact was he had some brains—aud used them. 
Calf Pen 
10xl3'-4-‘ 
Feed 
Room 
10x13-4 
- 67‘-10" - 
EAST , Re, 
is directly 
Suggested Plan fur a Dairg Burn 
far puffing /tag ft, 
w door /narked A 
Fig. 379 
P LANNING a modern dairy barn 
is work that requires 
thought. It is a permanent struc¬ 
ture and one that must meet the 
present needs of the farm as well as ' . 
provide for future growth, or at 
least make provision for future 
growth, by providing an easy means .. 
of enlargement, the probable addi- ^ 
tion and its effect upon the existing A J 
structure being considered when 
making the plan. No one else is as 
capable of making this plan as the 
farmer. It is his work. He has \ 
* nguii 
studied it and can best lay out the 
interior to save time and steps when 
earing for stock. The actual form- ^nf ruB 
lug. however, can best he left to a 
professional builder or architect. He 
can take the floor plan provided by 
the farmer, and through use of his 
better knowledge of lumber grades 
and sizes, stresses, etc., work out 
the placing of the timbers, where 
they will do the most good and he Tlir 
least in the way, securing a strong 
and rigid building at the minimum expense for 
lumber. 
In regard to ceiling height, 874 ft- is standard, a 
lower stable not being so easily lighted. This height 
is measured on the driveway, back of the cows, 
which is usually the lowest part of tiie floor. Win¬ 
dows should he placed near the ceiling with the long 
dimension vertical, in order that they may admit the 
greatest amount of light to the stable. 
Concerning the ventilation. 1 note that you figure 
671 square inches as the necessary total of out-take 
flue opening. The exact size of the out-take flue 
depends of course on a number of factors, ns con¬ 
struction. shape, height, etc. However, it is custo¬ 
mary to figure on a velocity of flow of 250 ft. per 
minute in the out-take flues, and to provide fresh air 
at tiie rate of 59 cubic feet per minute per cow. 
Figuring on this basis about 782 square inches of 
flue opening would be required for 23 cows. 
It is understood from your letter that you are 
contemplating a plank frame barn. This type is 
most conveniently built from the materials now 
available. If the barn is to be a full two-story build¬ 
ing. with hay storage above. I would advise the use 
of heavier studding for the stable: 2xlo material Is 
usually used here to give the necessary stiffness and 
strength, as it must support the hayloft and roof. 
some 
housed. However, it is perhaps less easily kept 
clean and in a sanitary condition. Wood construc¬ 
tion is. in most cases, the cheapest of those 
enumerated. 
Hollow tile and concrete blocks are used to a con¬ 
siderable extent in some of the Middle Western 
States. The University of Iowa at Ames. Iowa, 
especially, has done a great deal of experimental 
work with this type of building material. They have 
published a number of bulletins on hollow tile build¬ 
ings as well as a list of farm building plans which 
will he sent you upon request, and it is probable that 
they would he of value to you. Robert h. smith. 
“ Big Joe ” a Desirable Strawberry 
S OME years ago Mr. E. S. Black, a well-known 
horticulturist of Little Silver. X. J.. introduced 
a new variety of strawberry. It was a good variety, 
large, well colored, a good yielder, and particularly 
good for a light soil. Mr. Black gave this variety 
the simple and humble name of .Toe. It was good 
enough to he called Joseph <>r some more aristocratic 
name, but "Joe" was good enough for Mr. Black 
After a few years a number of new varieties sprouted 
out. or sent out their runners into the catalogues. 
Most of them seemed to hail from Delaware and 
