VOLi. XXXVIII. No. 11.) 
WHOLE No. 1520. I 
NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 15, 1879 
(PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
i $2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1879, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.! 
|Rural ^rrljitcrture, 
A FEW AXIOMS IN BARN-BUILDING. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
The Wntcr Supply. 
The axiom already referred to, that we 
should make the force of gravitation help and 
7iot hinder us, lias one of its most important 
applications in the water supply for the barn. 
If there is a spriug uear, the force of gravity 
can usually be made to send it into the baru 
for the use of the stock, either with or without 
the help of the hydraulic ram. Where there is 
unfailing water in a well near by, the force of 
the wind can be made to overcome the force of 
gravity, and pump the water for the stock. 
Both these methods are good when applicable, 
and are usually well understood. 
But in rnosc dairy regions the soil is clayey, 
springs arc few, and water in sufficient quan¬ 
tity often cannot be obtained even by deep dig¬ 
ging. lu that caBe what shall we do ? 
A baru that stables stock and stores their 
hay, grain and straw, will catch water 
enough ou its roof to water the animals at 
least nine months in the year. If it is a bank 
bam, with stock in a part of the basemeut, as 
it should always be for a stock barn, the cis¬ 
tern cau be a long brick arch, above in the 
bunk, next to the front wall of the barn, and 
the water will come down into the basement 
through a pipe laid below the front wall, for 
the use of stock. Along, arched cistern, seven 
feet wide and sev¬ 
en feet high, will 
hold over ten bar¬ 
rels to every foot 
of length. If it is 
50 feet long, as 
it may easily be 
for a large bank 
bam. it will hold 
500 barrels which 
will store the av¬ 
erage raiufall of 
six weeks on a 
bam of 45x«.K) feet, 
and water the 
stock likely to be 
kept in such a 
barn, say 80 or 40 
• head of cattle, for 
as long a time in 
ease of dry or fro¬ 
zen weather. By 
that time the root 
will probably re¬ 
plenish it. 
Fig. 1 represents 
t li e water-tank, 
.and connect i u n 
.with cistern in use 
: in t h e writer’s 
bam. The distance 
from cistern to 
tank is shortened, 
and the cistern 
made lower a n d 
smaller than the 
, reality, so as to 
. bring it into one 
figure. The tank 
should be placed 
in that part of the 
basement where it 
will be most con¬ 
venient for the 
watering of all the 
stock. It may be, 
by hose and stop¬ 
cock, put iu direct 
communication 
with a system of 
iron sinks, one in 
front of each cow, 
connected by iron 
tubing so that all the cows can be watered at 
once, by simply turning the stop-cock. Such 
an arrangement is found in some of the more 
expensive barns at the East, and was fully de¬ 
scribed and explained by engravings in the 
Rural New-Yorker, a few weeks ago. In 
my own case—and the same would be true of 
flic row of cows. Thirty cows can be watered 
in fifteen minutes or so ; more quickly than 
they could drink from the tank one at a time. 
The water in the cistern when full, is some 
four feet above the level of the top of the tank 
(See Fig. 1), and, of course, would overflow 
till it fell to that level if not hindered by some 
Fig. 
most Western farmers — the expense and the 
waste of surplus water after watering, preven¬ 
ted the introduction of this system of sinks 
or basins. The horses drink from the tank, 
and the cows are watered iu their feed-tubs, 
by dipping from the tank with a six-gallon 
pail, the tank being immediately in frout of 
1 . 
device. Such a device is represented in the 
figure. In short, it is this : a float rising and 
falling with the water, opens and shuts the 
stop-cock that admits the water from the 
cistern. The tank, k, is sunk two feet below 
the basement stable floor. One foot from its 
bottom enters the iron supply pipe a, a, from 
the bottom of the cistern. At 3 is a stopcock, 
lying horizontally and worked by the lever, c, 
s. The iron rod, c d, joins the end of this 
lever to another lever, f e, at the point d, 
which is about one-fourth the distance from 
the pivot e to the float, f. This is a light, hol¬ 
low, copper globe, about five inches in diam¬ 
eter, and by the aid of the double lever, it 
opens and shuts the stop-coek easily. 
The apparatus works a8 follows: suppose 
the cistern full aud the tank empty. The 
globe or float, f, drops by its own weight about 
a foot to a rest. This lowers the rod d e, and 
of course, also the lever c s, and turns the 
stop-cock, s, wide open. The water rushes in 
from the cistern, gradually Alls the tank, lifts 
the float, f, and slowly closes the stop-cock. 
When the tank is full, lacking four inches, the 
float-lever, f e, is horizontal, the float just hits 
the cover and the stop-cock is shut perfectly 
tight. When the water is drank or dipped out, 
the float sinks and opens the Htop-cock and ad^ 
rnits the water again ; and so on day after day 
and year after year. Mine has been iu daily 
use for almost five years now, and in all the 
time has never required the slightest attention 
or repairs, and has never once failed to do its 
work exactly right. My Irishman says, “Be 
jabers, it's the hondlest pump in Amiriky!” 
There is no patent on It, and the more it is 
'copied, the better I shall be pleased. Some dig 
a deep cistern in the hard-pan of the basemeut, 
or just out-of-doors, aud then laboriously 
pump up the water. But it is far easier to dig 
a long cistern in the bank above, for half the 
digging is done by the grading of the bank. 
And when the cis¬ 
tern is there, it 
needs no pump. 
The cost of tank, 
pipe and fixtures 
was $12. 
in these articles 
I have given a few 
only of the self- 
evident truths 
which have a bear¬ 
ing on the plan¬ 
ning aud construc¬ 
tion of barns, and 
have suggested a 
few of the most 
obvious and use¬ 
ful of their appli¬ 
cations. If any of 
my brother farm¬ 
ers who are about 
to build, shall be 
led by these hints 
to think out. and 
plan for them¬ 
selves, rather than 
simply to copy the 
barns most com¬ 
mon in their vi¬ 
cinity—good, bad 
o r iudifferent, — 
my object will 
have beeu fully 
gained. 
Summit Co., O. 
USEFUL POUL. 
TRY-HOUSE. 
COMBINED POULTRY-HOUSE, DOVE-COTE, AVIARY AND DOG-KENNEL. 
TnE highest 
point of excel¬ 
lence is supposed 
to lie reached 
whenever the em¬ 
inently useful aud 
ornamental can be 
combined in any 
on e obj ect. The en¬ 
graving portrays 
a poultry-house, 
which was exhib¬ 
ited last fall in the 
