HAY BARNS. 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS. 
In the Rural of February 5, 1881, I gave a 
few illustrations and explanatory notes in re¬ 
gard to the economical construction of 
hay barns by using small, short tim¬ 
bers. Other inquiries are made in regard 
to them by those who are differently sit¬ 
uated. The following diagram (Fig. 232) 
—a cross section—will serve to illustrate a 
somewhat cheaper and different form from 
the one previously given. The illustration 
represents a building without sills, the posts 
being set on flat stone. The stone should be 
broad; the one on the ground at least two 
feet square, and it need not be sunk in the 
ground more than half a foot, as the frost 
will do no material damage. The cut represents 
a building 44 feet wide, with posts 16 feet 
long. I think I would prefer them only 12, as 
represented by the dotted line, since it 
would give a steeper roof at the sacrifice of 
but little space. 
The building might be composed of three or 
more 16-foot bents or sections, each bent, ex¬ 
cept the outside one, having doors on the 
side of the building, thus permitting bent one 
to be filled from bent two, and two from three, 
and so on, the last bent being filled from the 
outside. 
If the building as represented is too wide 
the center posts might be left out and the two 
beams (I, I) made of one piece, 26 feet long, 
this being about the extreme width that is ad¬ 
missible with a plain roof without roof sup¬ 
ports. The braces under the beam should, in 
that case, be made of 4x4 inch, with six feet 
run and mortised and pinned. The roof Bhould 
also be quite steep, with a rise of at least 10 
feet, in order to relieve the thrust. The outside 
posts, either in the large or small building, 
may be 4x6; the inside ones of hard wood, 
6x6; if of soft wood, 8x8; beams 6x8; short 
braces 2x4 (four feet run) spiked in, subject to 
the previous exceptions. The rafters are 
made of two pieces, 2x6, lapped and spiked at 
the top plate. The lower set with projections 
will be 19 feet long; the upper 11 feet. Per¬ 
haps it would be well to narrow up the side 
spans to 12 feet, which would make the 
building 40 feet wide and the long rafters 16 
feet. The side girts may be framed in, one 
near the bottom of the posts, the other half 
way up, if the posts are 12 feet long; if six 
and 10 feet, two intermediate girts will be 
required; the upper one may be nailed in just 
at the foot of braces, as planned in the former 
drawing. The girts are most expeditiously 
made by cutting a 2x6-inch piece six inches 
longer than the distance between the posts; 
this allows for a three-inch tenon on each 
end. A second 2x6 is cut, six inches shorter 
than the first and spiked to it, leaving a tenon 
2x6, and three inches long at both ends. 
I think it is not generally known that in 
coarse grained, knotty timber, two pieces 
piked together are stronger than one undi¬ 
vided timber of a size equal to both. The 
center ties run lengthwise, are of 2x8, spiked 
on as shown at (0.0), and where they meet are 
not to be joined in the middle of the post, but 
should reach across the full width of it, the 
next continuous girt being placed either 
above or below the first, as shown on the short 
post at the right side, where the end of the 
girt that is approaching as well as the one 
that is receding, is shown. If the building is 
of moderate dimensions the side girts may be 
2x6, spiked on; the plates 2x6, two pieces, 
spiked to the heads of the posts (p), or one upon 
the other, breaking joints and projecting two 
inches beyond the posts. The strength of a 
building is usually in proportion to the num¬ 
ber of braces and the places which they oc¬ 
cupy, and not to the size of the large tim¬ 
bers. 
The roof may ba of shingles, or if quite 
steep, of boards doubled, the ribs for receiv¬ 
ing them being 3x2, placed three feet apart, 
as shown in ihe dotted line. A board roof is 
usually not quite water-tight, but it is so 
nearly so that hay receives little appreciable 
damage when stored under it. A hay and 
sheep barn with a roof of knotty pine boards, 
constructed in Iowa in 1863, has given entire 
satisfaction, and is still in good order, though 
no repairs have been made" upon it. There 
appear to be no architects for plain country 
barns. The country carpenter may be a good 
workman, but he is usually 20 years behind 
the times in construction. The result is that 
from 25 to 30 per cent, more timber is used 
than is necessary; the sills are cut half off 
with gains; therefore they must be made 
twice as large as is really necessary to over¬ 
come the weakaess. In a certain barn in 
Pennsylvania the owner had paid at least 
$50 to the carpenters for destroying nearly 
half of the strength of his sills, beams and 
oists. Why not place the latter^upovi the 
former and save labor and strength of ma¬ 
terial? To illustrate what may be safely done, 
let me say that I constructed a barn a few 
years since, 120 feet long by 100 wide (ex¬ 
treme lengths), 30 feet to the eaves on two 
sides, 42 feet on the other two, and from base¬ 
ment to the (Holstein) ornament on the cu¬ 
pola, measuring 100 feet. With the exception 
of 12 center posts, 8x8, none of the upright 
timbers are larger than 2x6, the plates being 
of the same material doubled. The third floor 
was loaded last year with 750 bushels of 
wheat, 1,130 bushels of oats and about 100 
tons of hay; and the outer ends of the joists 
upon which this immense load rested were 
supported by a board girt, one-and-one-half 
and wether mutton is quite equal to that of 
the sheep. The value of the fleece is greater 
than that of wool, and 75 cents a pound for a 
six-pound fleece give as large a profit as 10 
pounds of wool at 45 cents a pound; for a goat 
can be kept at least as easily as a sheep, and 
especially in small flocks on farms or upon 
large ranges in large numbers. It is not a 
matter of substitution of goats for sheep, but 
one of goat herding as a distinct and equally 
useful industry, and the facts are quite suffi¬ 
cient to warrant the employment of enterprise 
and capital in the industry. 
The Angora goat is frequently confounded 
with the Cashmere. But the two are entirely 
distinct. The wool of the Cashmere is a fine 
Section of Hay Barn.—Figure 232. 
inch thick by four inches wide, let into the 
2x6 uprights. 
Thus can be seen what strength there may 
be in small sticks properly placed. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
THE ANGORA GOAT. 
The question has been asked, is there a place 
in American agriculture for the Angora goat ? 
This question involves the profi-ableness, as 
well as the possibility of keeping these ani¬ 
mals. A solution depends upon whether or 
not they can be kept as well and as easily as 
sheep, and if there is a demand for their fleeces 
or their flesh, and if ot for the latter, if the 
former is sufficiently valuable to pay for the 
keeping of the goats. 
At the outset it is well to get rid of much 
accumulated nonsense and rubbish which 
have been written about these animals. It 
has been said they will thrive where sheep 
will starve; that they will live upon brush 
and barren ground, and that they are able to 
defend themselves against dogs, all of which 
Is untrue and delusive. Goats require as good 
feeding and as good care as sheep, and are as 
subject to disease when not well cared for. 
Dogs are equally pernicious to them, and 
down which grows next the skin under a 
fleece of coarse hair. This down is of exquis¬ 
ite softness and fineness, and is the material 
of which the extremely coBtly India and 
Cashmere shawls are made. These shawls are 
of such fine texture that the best can be drawn 
through a common fiager ring. The Angora 
fleece is a long, silky fiber, between wool and 
hair, and is the raw material of which the 
well known mohair fabrics, fringes and lus¬ 
trous goods are made. There is a certain sta¬ 
ple demand for it, which would be much en¬ 
larged if the supply could be increased. The 
engraving, Fig. 233, gives an excellent rep¬ 
resentation of this animal, which was im¬ 
ported from the district of Angora in Asia 
Minor. There are several flocks of Angoras 
in America, chiefly in the Southern States and 
Southern California. In tbe latter locality a 
large flock is kept upon an island of consider¬ 
able extent some distance from the coast, 
which is owned by a joint stock compauy. 
Mr. Peters, of Atlanta, Georgia, was the first 
importer of these goats, and has bred them 
continuously for more than thirty years. 
They are better suited to the w-armer climate 
of the South than the cooler one of the North, 
although they are quite hardy and in their 
native country inhabit the elevated localities 
of the mountain districts. A few specimens 
are kept here and there in the Northern States, 
and occasionally these are exhibited at the 
fairs. But on the whole they would be more 
tit. N 
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toll 
.JMfp 
- • ' v ; • ■ I 
Angora Goat.—Figure 233. 
although the rams at the breeding season will 
show fight to a dog, yet these pests are always 
in force when they make their raids, and two 
or three rams are unable to defend a flock of 
ewe goats against half a dozen bloodthirsty 
curs, so that all this false belief must be elim¬ 
inated from the consideration of this question. 
Now there is no doubt we have a use and a 
place here for these goats. The manufacture 
of mohair goods is a staple and increasing 
business, and mohair is manufactured from 
goats’ hair, and the great demand for the 
handsome carriage and hall and parlor rugs 
which are made from the skins, would every 
year require several hundred thousand, if not 
some millions, to supply it. Then kid is equal 
to lamb as a culinary delicacy, and ewe goat 
at home in the South, where the “old-fleld” 
pastures and the open, grassy woods would 
afford them acceptable and very cheap pasture. 
arttons. 
Origin of the Seckel Pear. 
About eighty years ago there was a well- 
known Bportsman and cattle dealer in Phila¬ 
delphia who was familiarly known as “Dutch 
Jacob,” Every season, early in the Autumn 
on returning from his shooting excursions, 
Dutch Jacob regaled his neighbors with pears 
of an unusually delicious flavor, the secret of 
whose place of growth, however, he would 
| never satisfy their curiosity by divulging. At 
length the Holland Land Company, owning a 
considerable tract south of the city, disposed 
of it in parcels, and Dutch Jacob then secured 
the ground on which his pear tree stood, a 
flue strip of land near the Delaware. Not 
long afterwards it became the farm of Mr. 
Seckel, who introduced this fruit to public 
notice, and it received his name. Afterwards 
the property was added to the vast estate of 
the late Stephen Girard. The original tree 
still exists, vigorous and fruitful. It is sup¬ 
posed that the tree originated from seeds 
dropped by Germans who emigrated from 
Germany and settled near Philadelphia, as it 
bears some affinity to Rousselet, a well-known 
German pear. Annie L. Daniel. 
Prince Edward Co., Va. 
-- 
Iowa's Tornadoes. 
The regular unanimity with which the gen¬ 
eral public agree to attribute ths recent dread¬ 
ful and destructive tornadoes and wind and 
rain storms in Iowa, to the original bareness 
of thecouutry of forest growth and the subse¬ 
quent destruction of what little timber there 
once was, points quite plainly to the direction 
which an attempt to correct these inaptitudes 
of the country will take, viz., to making 
forestry a leading agricultural industry. 
Whether true or not, that if Iowa were 
timbered, she would suffer no more from tor¬ 
nadoes than Illinois does, it is perfectly plain 
that though extensive wooded tracts may not 
prevent the formation of theRe tornadoes, their 
progress across the country would be checked 
in a greater or less degree by the resistance 
offered to their course by heavy or light 
bodies of standing timber. . B. F. J. 
Champaign, Ill. 
Evenness of Growth in a Tree is very 
desirable for several reasons, and this can be 
maintained by the thumb and finger process. 
The Irishman’s advice, “where you see a 
head, strike it,” is quite appropriate iu tree 
training. If you see a branch overtopping 
its neighbors, running out strong and tall, it 
is robbing some other part of the tree; nip the 
head out, and it will remain stationary for 
several weeks. The diverted sap will pass 
into the weaker channel just as surol)' as tho 
loss of one pig in the litter will give tho re¬ 
maining incipient porkers better opportunities 
for growth. This nipping not only ad is to 
the fruitfulness of the tree, but distributes the 
fruit more evenly upon the branches; and it 
is not theory alone that impels this statement. 
A more solid theory or more substantial facts 
cannot be found in all the operations of na¬ 
ture. A. A. B. 
CATALOGUES, &C. 
Johnson Grass (Sorghum halapense) its 
history, value, manuer of cultivation, yield 
per acre, etc. A pamphlet of 30 pages issued 
for gratuitous circulation by Herbert Post, 
Marion Junction, Dallas Co., Alabama. 
Thirty-fourth annual fair of the Mich¬ 
igan State Agricultural Society, and Thir¬ 
teenth Annual Fair of the Michigan State 
Horticultural Society, at Jackson, Sept. 18 to 
22 inclusive. 
Twenty fifth annual report of the Sec¬ 
retary of the Maine Board of Agriculture for 
the year 1881—250 pages. T. A. Gilbert Sec¬ 
retary, East Turner, Maine. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS, 
The Hansell is a new red raspberry that 
will be offered for sale next year. It origina¬ 
ted on the farm of the Hansell Brothers, of 
Burlington Co., New Jersey, and it is thought 
to be the earliest red raspberry known. This 
is the opinion of Judge Parry, John S. Col¬ 
lins, J. T. Lovett, J. G. Burrows and a num¬ 
ber of other competent judges assembled at the 
farm of the Hansell Brothers early in the 
season to see and to express their opinions of 
this berry. Berries of the Hansell were brought 
to the Rural office by Mr. Lovett a week be¬ 
fore any, whether red or black, had begun 
to color at the Rural Grounds. They were of 
medium size, bright red, very firm and of good 
quality. We learn that this variety is entirely 
hardy iu the grounds where it originated, aud 
it iB our belief that it will at once take its 
place as the earliest red raspberry known, and 
that it will be the more prized because it is of 
better quality than the Highland Hardy or any 
other which at once follows it in fruiting. 
Shortly after the appearance of Mr. E. 
Williams’s reply to Mr. Campbell, regarding 
the Niagara Grape, we recrived a personal let¬ 
ter from the latter a part of which is presented 
below. It is published with Mr. Campbell’s 
consent given at our request. We made the 
request simply because the R. N.-Y. is always 
anxious to show even a fuller measure of 
justice to thone who ore opposed to its opin¬ 
ions than to those who are in full accord with 
them. 
Delaware, O., May 29, 1882. 
“I was a little surprised at E. Williams’s 
