“On the oat stubble, grandfather.” replied 
Fred ; “ instead of wheat or rye. A good crop 
of turnips was grown on the college farm after 
the oats were taken ofl, and barley was sown in 
the spring and seeded down to grass and 
clover. We had 900 bushels of turnips per 
acre ; the ground had 10 loads of manure per 
acre and 300 pounds of superphosphate of 
lime, and we had 48 bushels of barley to the 
acre the next year, and a fine catch of grass. 
You see the turnips were nearly all clear gain.” 
“And the rag-weed did not seed in the oat 
stubble, I dare say,” remarked William. 
“That it did not.' I replied, “ if the turnips 
brought nearly 1,000 bushels per acre. But I 
consider turnips ouly a catch crop to fill a gap 
such as this. I agree with Mr. Martin that we 
can and should grow roots in onr regular rota¬ 
tion. Put corn on the sod, if you like,—al¬ 
though i don’t consider that necessary and 
would just as soon put it on stubble laud,— 
then take oats or barley ; fnli-fallow the land, 
which I think au admirable practice, and grow 
mangels or sugar-beets, using as much manure 
as can be spared, and at least 500 pounds per 
acre of artificial manure. From 1,000 to 1,200 
bushels per acre may be expected, if the seed 
is put iu early and the crop is well cultivated 
and the season is not very unfavorable. The 
next season you have a clean field which is 
well prepared for bai ley, and no other crop is 
so good a one as this to seed down to clover 
with. Then the second year the clover may be 
turnednnder for wheal, with a light manuring 
and some superphosphate, if possible, aud the 
ground seeded to timothy and clover for two 
or three years’ hay. This would give an eight- 
years’ rotation in place of six now, or seven, if 
turnips are taken after oats, instead of waiting 
for mangels the next spring. There would be 
three manurings, two cultivated crops and 
two smothering crops—grass and clover—by 
which weeds would he kept down. The feed¬ 
ing of the roots would make a large quantity 
of manure which would be useful for potatoes 
or corn the next season. This would be my 
plau if 1 were farming in this way; but as 1 
am situated, roots are a positive necessity. I 
must have green winter feed to produce milk. 
Turnips will not do on account of the disagree¬ 
able flavor they give to the milk. Beets aud 
mangels are free from this objection. Last 
year ou one acre, as an experiment, I raised 
1.200 bushels at a cost of five cents a bushel. 
This year l am sowing five acres which, I hope, 
will at least produce 4.000 to 5,000 bushels. 
or broken up—“ smashed.” is the term used— 
by steam cultivation; and then the hard clay 
rang under a person’s tread almost like a 
burned tile, and there were deep cracks in the 
bare fallows, two inches wide : since then Mr. 
Mechi’e business has suffered trom disaster. 
against us, and therefore by constructing a 
bank barn, so arrange that the load should be 
pitched down rather than lifted up.”—E ds.] 
Axioms four and five contain tnnch excellent, 
advice. I feel, however, like entering a protest 
against the use of the word “ axiom ” in such a 
in every respect similar (except as to bight of 
posts), it will be seen that the span of roof aud 
length of horizontal beams in the larger frame, 
are just twice tho length of those in the smaller 
one. Now, under such conditions, an equal load, 
similarly placed, produces four times the strain 
on the roof timbers and horizontal pieces sub¬ 
jected to downward pressure in the frame of 
the larger barn that it does on those of the 
smaller. The result is, that to make the frames 
of equal strength, the roof timbers and most of 
the horizontal timbers, must be four times as 
large in the larger frame as in the smaller one. 
Now, whenever the saving on siding and eave 
projections is sufficient to pay three times the 
cost of the timber previously mentioned, then 
will there be economy in converting two small 
barns into one large one. It is to be noticed 
that so long as the pitch remains the same, the 
umount of shingles and roof boarding required 
is unchanged, whether the space be covered by 
one or any number of roofs. Thus, in Fig. 2, 
the distance a d f is equal to the distance ab c e f. 
As a general thing (with some exceptions), 
so far as economy of structure covering an 
equal area is concerned, those buildings having 
the most roofs, are the most economical to con¬ 
struct. An example of this is seen in bridge 
building, where it lias long been known that 
two structures of 20 feet each (not considering 
the abutments) can be erected for about one- 
half the cost of one structure, 40 feet long, of 
the same width and strength. The conclusion 
in regard to what the writer terms his second 
axiom, is that it is of extremely limited appli¬ 
cation and true ouly when the cost of siding 
makes up a large proportion of the expense of 
building the barn. The most economical size 
of any barn for a given capacity can be de¬ 
termined only by knowing the cost of material 
and labor in any given locality. This much 
will usually be found true in any locality, that 
the most economical means for providing a 
given capacity will be found in buildings with 
a moderate bight and a moderate span of roof 
rather than in a less number of larger buildings, 
or in a greater number of smaller ones. The 
length of a building may be increased indefi¬ 
nitely, 'provided the bight of the building and 
the span of the roof are unchanged, without 
increasing the strain on the timbers of the 
frame, except very slightly at the end, and con¬ 
sequently by such an operation there is a sav¬ 
ing of siding at the ends with no counter¬ 
balancing expense. Thus, in Fig. 3, A B H G 
represents the plau of a barn formed by putting 
the ends of the barns ABDC, DCEF and E 
F H G together, and this is the only way in 
which a barn can be indefinitely extended with¬ 
out incurring an expense far out of proportion 
to the benefits received. It is hardly necessary 
to say that, as a general tiling, our conclusions 
sustain the common practice of erecting mod¬ 
erate-sized barns as more economical than 
larger ones 
YA\R& 
aud he is now a poor man, compared with what 
he once was, and depends for his daily bread 
upon the profits of his farm. The history of 
his farm, is decidedly, a “ history of a poor 
farmbut there are few others iu England or 
elsewhere that can now show a better yearly 
account than his. Friend Martin is right. 
Without roots Mr. Mechi would neverhave suc¬ 
ceeded, and I hope to profit from his success.” 
“If we grow roots, we eau’t grow corn; 
aud how can we do without corn ?" remarked 
the old gentleman. “ Corn is our great, crop. 
It fattens nearly all our beef, and makes all 
the pork, poultry, and eggs we raise, aud corn 
can be grown with less trouble than roots. I 
uevei grew a crop of turnips that paid me.” 
“ That is because you sow them broad-cast 
aud never weed them,” replied Free]. 
“ It would not pay to weed them,- tbe labor 
would come to more than the crop, if we hired 
it, and we have not time to do it ourselves. 
Half a crop raised cheaply Is better than a dear 
full crop” rejoined the old gentleman. “Corn 
is our grand crop, and it feeds everything.” 
“You are verj r wrong to suppose that half a 
crop raised cheaply, is better than a full dear 
crop. That is eoutrary to general experience aud 
is a baneful Idea. But you are right as regards 
corn." " It is a grand crop," replied Mr. Martin; 
“1,342,558,000 bushels raised in one year, or 
over 30 bushels for every mau, woman and 
child in the eountry, is something vast to think 
of. But you do not think of how much of 
this is wasted by not being fed as profitably as 
it might be. There is no need to grow one 
bushel of corn less than we do, should wc grow 
roots. The two crops can be grown and used 
together. We cannot feed all corn ; we need 
some succulent food to preserve healthfulness. 
It is highly probable that nearly all the fatal 
diseases of our stock—hog cholera as it is 
called, for one—are due to feeding corn, and 
corn only. With soft, laxative food, snch as 
sense. Even though the propositions iuvolved 
were general truths—which they are not—the 
very fact that argument is used to establish 
them proves them uot self-evident, and hence 
not axioms. 
Lansing. Mich. 
HISTORY OF A POOR FARM-NO. 9 
The Talue of Roots and How to Grow Them. 
“What has made English agriculture the 
most productive In the world,” remarked Mr. 
Martiu ; “ if it is not the root crops ? No other 
nation, unless it be the French, give so much 
attention to roots. This crop occurs iu the 
rotation as a regular member of it, aud it is 
regarded as the chief source of manure. It is 
either fed off from the grouud by sheep pen¬ 
ned or hurdled upon the fields in plots in reg¬ 
ular succession, or it is carted to the feed¬ 
ing sheds where fattening bullocks are kept 
amply littered with straw, and is given to 
these at the rate of one or two bushels per day 
along with various concentrated foods. This 
is done for *he purpose of making the large 
supply of manure without which the tenant 
farmers coifid n,t>4 pay the high rents charged 
for the use of the land. Mr. Mechi makes 
200 pounds of beef or mutton per acre every 
year for every acre of his farm, besides selling 
butter, grain, hay and vegetables. Two hun¬ 
dred poiuids of beef or mutton are equivalent 
to $30 per acre aud this Is from a second¬ 
ary portion ouly of the product of his farm, 
which Is worked under a system which they 
call high farming.” 
“Mr. Mechi is a rich man and farms for 
pleasure, I suppose ?"said my old neighbor. 
That is a mistake” I replied. “ Mr. Mechi was 
formerly a very successful business man, aud 
Practice in England, 
lu England the high price of material has 
made the question regarding the economy of 
barn buildings a live one, and we find that con¬ 
siderations, both of economy and convenience, 
are leading them to construct barns of moder¬ 
ate bight and moderate span ot roof, but in 
effect of considerable length by constructing 
them around an open yard, or b3 T constructing 
a series of small barns, side by side, with sep- 
erate roofs, as shown by the dotted lines a b c 
e f in Fig. 2. 
Fig. 4 shows the plan of a barn 
actually built on the farm of Thomas 
Magraw, near Bay City, Mich. The 
part iDolosed with double lines, is the 
main building, the portions in Bingle 
lines make up a shed for horses and 
cattle. Though this is not presented CL 
as a model barn plan, either for con¬ 
venience or economy, it is believed a 
careful study of it will do much good. 
This barn, it is claimed, is bnilt after 
German models; it certainly was 
erected by an intelligent German, and 
shows unusual compactness and econ¬ 
omy of construction. _ 
The Other Axioms. ^ - 
Of the remaining propositions stat- 'm 
ed under the head of axioms, three, ym 
four and five are open to little objec¬ 
tion. [Briefly these are a6 follows: third, 
•• The barn floor should run crosswise not 
lengthwise of the barnfourth, “ It is 
economy to utilize the space covered by the 
roof, and therefore the whole basement 
should be inclosedfifth, “ We should make 
tno force of gravitation work for aid not 
roots, I believe these diseases would disappear. 
Besides, we can’t grow a crop of roots success¬ 
fully without killing an enormous quantity of 
weeds, and that is a benefit.” 
“ I don’t see how we are to do it; where 
would you put your roots ?” asked the old 
gentleman. 
purchased his farm, which was as poor as 
mine, and worse iu fact, because it was a 
hard, sterile clay fit only to make bricks of, wet, 
cold and unproductive. It cost him about 
$125 per acre when fair farming land iu Eng¬ 
land was worth $500. I saw the farm some 
years ago before it was wholly underdrained 
fj A V 
F ~toofl 
Granary 
with 
-ST/vaw 
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