Vol. LXI. No. 2717. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 22, 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
THE PLANK FRAME BARN. 
NEW SYSTEM OF BARN BUILDING. 
Strength, Storage Room and Cheapness. 
During the past few years we have had several ar¬ 
ticles about the plank-frame barns made by John L. 
Shawver, of Ohio. There is much interest in these 
barns, and as it is impossible to describe them fairly 
with mere type, we print an excellent picture of a 
barn in process of construction, Fig. 48. This clearly 
shows the arrangement of the planks. We also show 
a picture of Mr. Shawver, Fig. 49, a man who has 
surely done something for agriculture. It has been 
claimed that these barns are not strong enough to 
stand high wind. We have corresponded with many 
farmers who have built them and all agree that they 
are as strong as the timber frames, easier to build, 
and more convenient, as the following reports show: 
STRONGEST FRAME. 
COMPARED WITH OLD STYLE.—We have barns 
built with the plank frame, also the log or heavy 
timber frame. The barns built of heavy timber were 
built a number of years ago, when the cost price of 
timber was not an item to be taken into considera¬ 
tion. In real fact, the labor and cost of sawing would 
overbalance the saving in the material used. Since 
then the price of lumber has changed. Large sticks 
of timber, such as formerly would have been used, 
could not now be had at any price, and we must look 
for other methods and ways of building barns. It is 
an admitted fact, that all or nearly all of the sound 
large trees have long since been cut into lumber, and 
it would be next to impossible now to get timber 10 
or 12 inches square and 60 to 80 feet long. The heavy 
timber barns are beyond a doubt strong barns to a 
certain limit, but when the frame runs beyond a rea¬ 
sonable limit in height it then ceases to retain 
completed it is so braced that no wind or other pres¬ 
sure can come against it from any direction, but it 
finds a brace ready to withstand its pressure. This 
point is usually overlooked in the arguments for and 
against the plank frame. 
We have found from experience that when the 
frame is built and stands unsupported without sides 
or roof that it is a more rigid frame within itself 
than the heavy timber. It has less tendency to weave 
and sway than has the heavy timber frame. When 
the siding and roof are added we find we have a very 
rigid and solid barn, and one that will withstand as 
much if not more wind than any other. Should the 
wind be strong enough to blow it over it will upset 
like a box, and not collapse and fall to pieces. When 
a wind would be strong enough to upset a barn It 
makes no difference what the frame is, over it goes. 
The weight of the heavy timbers would only tend to 
break the pins and ten- 
—We built a large base¬ 
ment barn with plank 
frame in 1898. We have 
now for three years 
stuffed this barn from 
floor to r o o f—m o w s. 
floor and every nook— 
with hay and shredded 
fodder, for feeding from 
25 to 35 steers for Spring 
or Summer market. We 
find the barn stronger 
than any of the old-fash¬ 
ioned timber frames; it 
stands more storms and 
strong winds than any 
of the heavy timber 
frames. Why? Because 
every piece of timber is 
spiked solidly together; 
and this cannot be with 
a mortise and tenon 
frame; as tenons will 
shrink, making a loose 
joint at every connection 
of timbers. This spike- 
frame can be made from 
small timber; the old 
style frame must have 
much heavy timber, the 
former saving quite an 
amount of lumber. The 
same number of carpen¬ 
ters will raise a spike- . 
frame in one-fourth of 
the time it will take to 
raise a mortise and 
tenon frame. The Shawver frame is the strongest and 
cheapest frame for a barn in the world. h. d. r. 
Covington, O. 
EASY TO BUILD.—Two years since I had a plank- 
frame basement barn built. The size is 40x60 feet; 
basement eight feet high, and full size of barn; 21- 
inch rock wall; the superstructure 20 feet high, with 
roof half pitch. The barn has not been affected by 
our strong Winter winds, nor by the severe storms 
we had last Summer, which demolished other barns, 
windmills and fences about here. In fact, it is as good 
as new. Strong? Why, I think it is stronger, and if 
a piece should give way or decay it can be replaced 
easier and quicker. Cost is at least 20 per cent cheap¬ 
er than putting in solid timbers. The carpenter had 
five men to help him to raise the barn, although he 
had built but one before like it. These six men fin¬ 
ished the barn, doors, shingles, hay carrier, etc., in two 
weeks. c - A - w> 
Warsaw, Ill. 
A PLANK FRAME BARN, SHAWVER SYSTEM. Fig. 48. 
ons and let the frame 
collapse. We have a 
plank-frame and a tim¬ 
ber-frame barn standing 
side by side, and up to 
this time they each have 
managed to withstand 
the wind. The plank 
frame has been built 
something like five years 
and as yet has shown no 
signs of springing out of 
place; the roof stands 
square and level and 
shows no sign of weak¬ 
ness. In regard to cost, 
we know, of course, the 
plank frame is the cheap¬ 
er, as it contains the 
smaller amount of lum¬ 
ber. Again, the lumber 
being in short lengths, 
the plank would be 
cheaper per thousand 
than the same in heavy 
timber of greater length. 
The construction will not 
be greater, and as the 
carpenters become more 
familiar with the plank 
frame there is a good 
probability of its becom¬ 
ing cheaper. We con¬ 
sider the plank frame 
the cheaper and better. 
AARON JONES, JR. 
South Bend, Ind. 
strength, and rather tends to weaken, and make an 
uncertain frame. The mere fact that a frame con¬ 
tains large and heavy timbers is no guarantee of its 
strength or durability. The strength of a barn frame 
depends almost entirely upon its method of bracing, 
and not upon the great dimensions of its timber. A 
timber frame, as a rule, is cut to tenons and then 
pinned together, and while a barn frame may be of 
very heavy timber, its real strength is only in matter 
of fact the strength of the pins and tenons. In tim¬ 
ber frames the heavy timber causes confidence in its 
strength by its massive appearance, and as a general 
rule the builders do not use sufficient bracing, and 
thus weaken a frame that otherwise would contain 
something near the strength it shows. In plank 
frames the other extreme is reached. The frame looks 
light and weak, and the builder places braces and 
cross pieces to support and strengthen every conceiv¬ 
able weak point; in fact, the frame at last looks like 
nothing less than a mass of braces, and when it is 
R. N.-Y.—In summing up the advantages of the 
plank frame, it will be noted that the strength and 
durability are recommended as highly as cheapness 
of construction.___ 
CHEAP HORSE WINTERING.—I am wintering 
five horses. The daily ration of each and its value is 
as follows: 35 pounds oat and wheat straw at ?5 per 
ton in three feeds, 8.7 cents; five pounds ear corn at 
70 cents for 75 pounds, 4.6 cents, in two feeds; total, 
13.3 cents. Straw not eaten is suflicient to bed the 
stalls. These horses went into Winter in good condi¬ 
tion, and are holding their own well. None of them 
has been off his feed, and two are beginning to shed 
their coats. Twenty pounds of clover hay in place of 
the straw would no doubt be better for the horses, 
and the cost no greater, but the best feed must be 
saved until the Spring work begins. No use of devel¬ 
oping a lot of surplus “ginger” in idle horses. When 
you feed straw feed straw, a good breakfast of hay 
will spoil their appetite for straw the rest of the day. 
Farmer, N. Y. v • c * 
